Long, long ago, beyond the misty space
Of twice a thousand years,
In Erin old there dwelt a mighty race
Taller than Roman spears;
Like oaks and towers, they had a giant grace,
Were fleet as deers:
With winds and waves they made their biding-place,
The Western shepherd seers.
Their ocean-god was _Mananan Mac Lir_,
Whose angry lips
In their white foam full often would inter
Whole fleets of ships:
_Crom_ was their day-god, and their thunderer
Made morning and eclipse:
_Bride_ was their queen of song, and unto her
They pray'd with fire-touch'd lips.
Great were their acts, their passions, and their sports;
With clay and stone
They piled on strath and shore those mystic forts,
Not yet undone;
On cairn-crown'd hills they held their council courts;
While youths--alone--
With giant-dogs, explored the elks' resorts,
And brought them down.
Of these was _Finn_, the father of the bard
Whose ancient song
Over the clamour of all change is heard,
Sweet-voiced and strong.
Finn once o'ertook Granu, the golden-hair'd,
The fleet and young:
From her, the lovely, and from him, the feared,
The primal poet sprung--
_Ossian!_--two thousand years of mist and change
Surround thy name;
Thy Finnian heroes now no longer range
The hills of Fame.
The very name of Finn and Gael sound strange;
Yet thine the same
By miscall'd lake and desecrated grange
Remains, and shall remain!
The Druid's altar and the Druid's creed
We scarce can trace;
There is not left an undisputed deed
Of all your race--
Save your majestic Song, which hath their speed,
And strength, and grace:
In that sole song they live, and love, and bleed--
It bears them on through space.
Inspired giant, shall we e'er behold,
In our own time,
One fit to speak your spirit on the wold,
Or seize your rhyme?
One pupil of the past, as mighty-soul'd
As in the prime
Were the fond, fair, and beautiful, and bold--
They of your song sublime?
_Thomas D'Arcy McGee_