Dear Harp of my Country! in darkness I found thee,
The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long,[1]
When proudly, my own Island Harp, I unbound thee,
And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song!
The warm lay of love and the light note of gladness
Have wakened thy fondest, thy liveliest thrill;
But, so oft hast thou echoed the deep sigh of sadness,
That even in thy mirth it will steal from thee still.
Dear Harp of my country! farewell to thy numbers,
This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine!
Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on thy slumbers,
Till touched by some hand less unworthy than mine;
If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover,
Have throbbed at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone;
I was _but_ as the wind, passing heedlessly over,
And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own.
[1] The chain of Silence was a sort of practical figure of rhetoric among
the ancient Irish. Walker tells us of "a celebrated contention for
precedence between Finn and Gaul, near Finn's palace at Almhaim, where the
attending Bards anxious, if possible, to produce a cessation of
hostilities, shook the chain of Silence, and flung themselves among the
ranks."