Narrative Poems, part 3, Barclay of Ury etc | Page 4

in the market. Kidnapping of free and innocent white persons was practised to a considerable extent in the seaports of the United Kingdom.
O NORAH, lay your basket down,?And rest your weary hand,?And come and hear me sing a song?Of our old Ireland.
There was a lord of Galaway,?A mighty lord was he;?And he did wed a second wife,?A maid of low degree.
But he was old, and she was young,?And so, in evil spite,?She baked the black bread for his kin,?And fed her own with white.
She whipped the maids and starved the kern,?And drove away the poor;?"Ah, woe is me!" the old lord said,?"I rue my bargain sore!"
This lord he had a daughter fair,?Beloved of old and young,?And nightly round the shealing-fires?Of her the gleeman sung.
"As sweet and good is young Kathleen?As Eve before her fall;"?So sang the harper at the fair,?So harped he in the hall.
"Oh, come to me, my daughter dear!?Come sit upon my knee,?For looking in your face, Kathleen,?Your mother's own I see!"
He smoothed and smoothed her hair away,?He kissed her forehead fair;?"It is my darling Mary's brow,?It is my darling's hair!"
Oh, then spake up the angry dame,?"Get up, get up," quoth she,?"I'll sell ye over Ireland,?I'll sell ye o'er the sea!"
She clipped her glossy hair away,?That none her rank might know;?She took away her gown of silk,?And gave her one of tow,
And sent her down to Limerick town?And to a seaman sold?This daughter of an Irish lord?For ten good pounds in gold.
The lord he smote upon his breast,?And tore his beard so gray;?But he was old, and she was young,?And so she had her way.
Sure that same night the Banshee howled?To fright the evil dame,?And fairy folks, who loved Kathleen,?With funeral torches came.
She watched them glancing through the trees,?And glimmering down the hill;?They crept before the dead-vault door,?And there they all stood still!
"Get up, old man! the wake-lights shine!"?"Ye murthering witch," quoth he,?"So I'm rid of your tongue, I little care?If they shine for you or me."
"Oh, whoso brings my daughter back,?My gold and land shall have!"?Oh, then spake up his handsome page,?"No gold nor land I crave!
"But give to me your daughter dear,?Give sweet Kathleen to me,?Be she on sea or be she on land,?I'll bring her back to thee."
"My daughter is a lady born,?And you of low degree,?But she shall be your bride the day?You bring her back to me."
He sailed east, he sailed west,?And far and long sailed he,?Until he came to Boston town,?Across the great salt sea.
"Oh, have ye seen the young Kathleen,?The flower of Ireland??Ye'll know her by her eyes so blue,?And by her snow-white hand!"
Out spake an ancient man, "I know?The maiden whom ye mean;?I bought her of a Limerick man,?And she is called Kathleen.
"No skill hath she in household work,?Her hands are soft and white,?Yet well by loving looks and ways?She doth her cost requite."
So up they walked through Boston town,?And met a maiden fair,?A little basket on her arm?So snowy-white and bare.
"Come hither, child, and say hast thou?This young man ever seen?"?They wept within each other's arms,?The page and young Kathleen.
"Oh give to me this darling child,?And take my purse of gold."?"Nay, not by me," her master said,?"Shall sweet Kathleen be sold.
"We loved her in the place of one?The Lord hath early ta'en;?But, since her heart's in Ireland,?We give her back again!"
Oh, for that same the saints in heaven?For his poor soul shall pray,?And Mary Mother wash with tears?His heresies away.
Sure now they dwell in Ireland;?As you go up Claremore?Ye'll see their castle looking down?The pleasant Galway shore.
And the old lord's wife is dead and gone,?And a happy man is he,?For he sits beside his own Kathleen,?With her darling on his knee.?1849.
THE WELL OF LOCH MAREE
Pennant, in his Voyage to the Hebrides, describes the holy well of Loch Maree, the waters of which were supposed to effect a miraculous cure of melancholy, trouble, and insanity.
CALM on the breast of Loch Maree?A little isle reposes;?A shadow woven of the oak?And willow o'er it closes.
Within, a Druid's mound is seen,?Set round with stony warders;?A fountain, gushing through the turf,?Flows o'er its grassy borders.
And whoso bathes therein his brow,?With care or madness burning,?Feels once again his healthful thought?And sense of peace returning.
O restless heart and fevered brain,?Unquiet and unstable,?That holy well of Loch Maree?Is more than idle fable!
Life's changes vex, its discords stun,?Its glaring sunshine blindeth,?And blest is he who on his way?That fount of healing findeth!
The shadows of a humbled will?And contrite heart are o'er it;?Go read its legend, "TRUST IN GOD,"?On Faith's white stones before it.?1850.
THE CHAPEL OF THE HERMITS.
The incident upon which this poem is based is related in a note to Bernardin Henri Saint Pierre's Etudes de la Nature. "We arrived at the habitation of the Hermits a little before they sat down to their table, and while they