Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A DEDICATION by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG

First Line: MY LAND, MY ERIN, CAN WE SING OF THEE
Last Line: IS RIPPLED WEIRDLY BY THE MOUNTAIN FLAW.
Subject(s): IRELAND; IRISH;

MY land, my Erin, can we sing of thee
Save in that music ringing through thy vales,
And through thy people's hearts, -- how bold and free,

How sadly like a Rachel's piteous wails,
Dying in anguish, faintly, brokenly,
With more of woe than all a poet's tales?

Thy music is thy speech: so half in fear
I link this story now in rhythmic law,
And miss in words that plaintive warble, clear

And dreamful, which first woke my soul with awe,
And thrilled it into motion, as a mere
Is rippled weirdly by the mountain flaw.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net