Oh! blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers,
Where Pleasure lies, carelessly smiling at Fame;
He was born for much more, and in happier hours
His soul might have burned with a holier flame.
The string, that now languishes loose o'er the lyre,
Might have bent a proud bow to the warrior's dart;[2]
And the lip, which now breathes but the song of desire,
Might have poured the full tide of a patriot's heart.
But alas for his country!--her pride is gone by,
And that spirit is broken, which never would bend;
O'er the ruin her children in secret must sigh,
For 'tis treason to love her, and death to defend.
Unprized are her sons, till they've learned to betray;
Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires;
And the torch, that would light them thro' dignity's way,
Must be caught from the pile, where their country expires.
Then blame not the bard, if in pleasure's soft dream,
He should try to forget, what he never can heal:
Oh! give but a hope--let a vista but gleam
Thro' the gloom of his country, and mark how he'll feel!
That instant, his heart at her shrine would lay down
Every passion it nurst, every bliss it adored;
While the myrtle, now idly entwined with his crown,
Like the wreath of Harmodius, should cover his sword.
But tho' glory be gone, and tho' hope fade away,
Thy name, loved Erin, shall live in his songs;
Not even in the hour, when his heart is most gay,
Will he lose the remembrance of thee and thy wrongs.
The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains;
The sigh of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep,
Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains,
Shall pause at the song of their captive, and weep!
[1] We may suppose this apology to have been uttered by one of those
wandering bards, whom Spenser so severely, and perhaps, truly, describes
in his State of Ireland, and whose poems, he tells us, "were sprinkled
with some pretty flowers of their natural device, which have good grace
and comeliness unto them, the which it is great pity to see abused to the
gracing of wickedness and vice, which, with good usage, would serve to
adorn and beautify virtue."
[2] It is conjectured by Wormius, that the name of Ireland is derived from
Yr, the Runic for a _bow_ in the use of which weapon the Irish were once
very expert. This derivation is certainly more creditable to us than the
following: "So that Ireland, called the land of _Ire_, from the constant
broils therein for 400 years, was now become the land of concord."
_Lloyd's "State Worthies_," art. _The Lord Grandison_.