And that yon sea, like a tired warrior,
For quiet joy hath laid aside his power,
That unattractive, therefore, must expand
This graceful curvature of golden sand

By the ebbing tide left shining. Vernal bower
Is scarce more fragrant than those weeds marine
Fringing the chrysolite, pellucid wells,

Wave-worn in the rock, where children stoop for shells,
And braiding yon gray reef with tresses green,
Where sunset loiterers love at eve to stand, –
Dark groups, with shadows lengthening to the land.

A

VI.

THE SOLITUDES OF MALBAY.

ND O ye solitudes of rocks and waters,

And medicinable gales and sounds Lethean,
Remote from strife and fratricidal slaughters,
Have I not sighed to hear your mighty pæan,
Reverberating through the empyrean,

And yearned to gaze while your white-throated surges
Leap, and dissolve in air, like shapes Protean,
That sport in the sunset, as the moon emerges
Over the sea-cliff? Have I not felt the longing
Then most intensely, when the storm-steed rushes
O'er the wild waves tumultuously thronging,
Smiting their wan crests, scattering as he crushes ; -
To stand on some lone peak, and hear, from under
Its caverned base, the ocean's melancholy thunder?
Sir Aubrey de Vere.

DARK ROSALEEN.

THIS impassioned ballad, entitled in the original Roisin Duh (or The Black Little Rose), was written in the reign of Elizabeth by one of the poets of the celebrated Tirconnellian chieftain, Hugh the Red O'Donnell. It purports to be an allegorical address from Hugh to Ireland, on the subject of his love and struggles for her, and his resolve to raise her again to the glorious position she held as a nation before the irruption of the Saxon and Norman spoilers.

MY Dark Rosaleen,

Do not sigh, do not weep!
The priests are on the ocean green,

They march along the deep.
There's wine from the royal Pope,
Upon the ocean green;

And Spanish ale shall give you hope,

My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen!

Shall glad your heart, shall give you hope,
Shall give you health and help and hope,
My Dark Rosaleen!

Over hills and through dales

Have I roamed for your sake;

All yesterday I sailed with sails

On river and on lake.

The Erne, at its highest flood,
I dashed across unseen,

For there was lightning in my blood,
My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen!

O, there was lightning in my blood,

Red lightning lightened through my blood, My Dark Rosaleen!

All day long, in unrest,

To and fro, do I move.

The very soul within my breast
Is wasted for you, love!
The heart in my bosom faints

To think of you, my queen,
My life of life, my saint of saints,
My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen!

To hear your sweet and sad complaints,
My life, my love, my saint of saints,
My Dark Rosaleen!

Woe and pain, pain and woe,

Are my lot, night and noon,
To see your bright face clouded so,
Like to the mournful moon.
But yet will I rear your throne
Again in golden sheen;

"T is you shall reign, shall reign alone,

My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen!

'Tis you shall have the golden throne,

'Tis you shall reign, and reign alone, My Dark Rosaleen!

Over dews, over sands,

Will I fly, for your weal;

Your holy delicate white hands
Shall girdle me with steel.

At home, in your emerald bowers,
From morning's dawn till e'en,

You'll pray for me, my flower of flowers,

My Dark Rosaleen!

My fond Rosaleen !

You'll think of me through daylight's hours,
My virgin flower, my flower of flowers,
My Dark Rosaleen!

I could scale the blue air,

I could plough the high hills,
O, I could kneel all night in prayer,
To heal your many ills!

And one beamy smile from you
Would float like light between
My toils and me, my own, my true,
My Dark Rosaleen !

My fond Rosaleen!

Would give me life and soul anew,
A second life, a soul anew,

My Dark Rosaleen !

O, the Erne shall run red

With redundance of blood,

The earth shall rock beneath our tread,

And flames wrap hill and wood;

And gun-peal and slogan cry

Wake many a glen serene,

Ere

you shall fade, ere you shall die,

My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen !

The Judgment Hour must first be nigh,
Ere you can fade, ere you can die,