Norah

“ My lord had a pound of his own: for a stray beast, so much; for a beast caught up the mountain without leave, eviction; for burning the limestone on your own place instead of buying it at the lord's kiln, eviction; for burning some parings of the peat land, the ashes of which made the potatoes grow bigger and drier, eviction. Not only did the man who did not doff his hat to the landlord stand in danger, but the man who did not uncover to his lowest under- bailiff. One exaction after another, one tyranny after another has dug a gulf between landlord and tenant that will be hard to bridge. ”

“ Parting is a time of test,
Father, give him what is best,
Father keep him from the rest,
Bless him though we fall apart.
Well I know love will not die,
It will cause us bliss or pain;
We may part for many years,
But my loving prayers and tears,
Rising up to Him who hears,
Will yet draw him back again.
From the fount of tenderness,
All the past comes brimming up;
When his brow is touched with care,
When no grief of his I share,
When we're separated far,
It will be a bitter cup;
Bless him from before Thy throne,
Thus my heart to Thee makes moan,
Keep him Lord where he is gone ”

“ The road to the new castle leads through scenery of grand mountain solitudes, treeless, houseless and silent. Our road wound in a serpentine fashion among the mountains. The drains that regularly score the foggy mountain sides produce a queer effect on the landscape.
As we wound along the serpentine road nearing the castle, the hills seemed to get wilder and more solemn. No trace of human habitations, no sound of human life, treeless, bare, silent mountains, wastes of black bog, rocks rising up till their solemn heads brushed the sky,—Irish giants in ragged cloaks of heather. ”

“ Listen, then, to thy mother's voice, D'Arcy McGee.
Since the crown from my head, and the sceptre are gone
To the hand of the stranger, who held what he won,
I have borne much of sorrow, of wrong and of shame,
I've been spoken against with scorning and blame;
But still have my daughters been spotless and fair,
And my sons have been dauntless to do and to dare;
For as great as thou art and most precious to me,
Still thou art not my only one, D'Arcy McGee.
At the bar, in the senate, in cassock or gown,
Our foes being judges, they've got them renown ”

“ She had the northern brow of snow,
The blush caught from a northern sky,
Dark silky locks of southern flow,
Light-footed as the forest roe,
As stately as the mountain pine,
A smile that lighted up her face,
The sunshine of a maiden's grace,
And made her beauty half divine.
So fair of face, so fair of form
Was she the peerless forest born.
Nature is kindly to her own,
To this Canadian cottage lone,
A back-wood settler's lot to bless,
She brought this flower of loveliness,
Seldom such beauty does she bring
To grace the palace of a king. ”

“ The banks are so richly green, the hills so fertile up to their round tops, checked off by green hedges into fields of all shapes and sizes; the trees lift up their proud heads and fling out their great arms as if laden with blessing; the primroses, like baby moons, more in number than the stars of heaven, glow under every hedge and gem every bank, so that though the Lake Allumette is as lovely as Lough Erne, yet the banks that sit round Lough Erne are more lovely by far than the borders of Lake Allumette. They are as fair as any spot under heaven in their brightness of green. ”

“ Something for the land we love to bring her high renown,
The land where we were born;
Is spoken of with scorn,
Her children's songs should praise her, her children's deeds should
crown.
My fair and stately Lily how thy hand sought mine
Clasped it warm and tender with sympathy in thine,
As I wished that we could make our 'streams and burmes shine'
There's many a ruin old,
There's many a castle bold,
There's Sleive mis with his head in mist, here's the silver Maine,
But who of them will sing
Till the whole world shall ring,
With the melody, and ask to hear it once again? ”

“ On the slope, half way up the slope, snuggling down at the foot of the slope, are residences of every degree of beauty. Houses, square and solid, with wide porticos; houses rising into many gabled peaks; houses that have swollen into all sorts of bay windows running up to the roof, or stopping with the first story. Houses that fling themselves up into the sky in towers and turrets, and assert themselves to be, indeed, castles.
Queenstown comes at last, a town hung up on a steep hillside, and on the very brow of the hill is an immense cathedral, unfinished like St. Finn Barre's, of Cork. ”

“ But childhood's woe, thank God, is always brief.
Try to cheer Annie in her widowed woe;
Let her hear words of comfort at thy mouth;
But, friend, I charge thee, do not let her know
Aught of the tender mercies of the South.
Tell her that I have never been alone,
One like the Son of Man was by my side;
The Everlasting arms were round me thrown
Of my dear Lord who for our freedom died.
I don't regret, that though of British birth,
I have been true to the cause unto death;
'Tis not alone the Union, or the North,
It is the people's cause o'er all the earth. ”

“ The wide Lough Foyle is in sight of the road most of the way, and a sea- bound steamer carries me away in thought to Canada. The air is nipping enough to choke sentiment in the bud. It is bitter cold, and I have the windward side of the car, and shiver at the nodding daffodils in blooming clumps at every cottage as we pass along. There are some waste unreclaimed fields, and the tide is out as we drive along, so that long stretches of bare blue mud, spotted with eruptions of sea weed, fit well with the cold wind that is enjoying a cutting sweep at us. ”

“ TO A FATHERS MEMORY (J. M. D.) I thank Thee Father that I feel Thee near,
That it is hand of Thine that's raised to smite,
Oh, make Thy loving kindness to appear,
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right!
Poor woe-worn watchers! he is going home;
No skill can save him, and no love can keep;
He served his generation—he is gone,
And gathered to his fathers, falls asleep.
We've bitter cups to drain—but his is dry;
Burdens of care—but care has left his breast;
Tears—but they never more shall dim his eye ”

“ The expression of face among the Donegal peasantry is a patience that waits. The Mayo men seem dispirited as the Leitrim men also do, but are capable of flashing up into desperation. The Galway men seem never to have been tamed. The ferocious O'Flaherties, the fierce tribes of Galway, the dark Spanish blood, have all left their marks on and bequeathed their spirit to the men of Galway. I met one or two who, like some of the Puritans, believed that killing was not murder, who urged that if the law would not deter great men from wrong-doing it should not protect them. ”

“ Said the King with kindling brow,
"God grant she may bring to Dessau,
Many sons so brave as thou.
"You are Sovereign Prince of Dessau
By the right of princely birth,
She is Sovereign Queen of Beauty,
As fair as there walks the earth.
"She's fairest, and you the bravest,
With love for a joining band,
Shall rank equal with the noblest
That walks in our Fatherland."
* * *
Tears passed over Anhalt Dessau,
And sprinkled his locks with snow,
He had wealth, success and honours,
And his share of human woe.
His fair wife and his goodly sons
Filled his heart with joy and pride ”

“ A beautiful day, warm and pleasant, shone upon us; the round- headed sycamores are leafed out, and the larch has shaken out her tassels, the ditch backs are blazing with primroses and the black thorns are white with bloom, and there are millions of daisies in the grass. We passed over some good land at the roadside, some green fields in the valleys, but there is a very great deal of waste and also of barren land. A great deal of the tilled land is bog, a good deal of the waste land is shallow earth overlying rocks, some is cumbered with great boulders, and rough with heather and whins. ”

“ They have taught the stern Saxon they know how to die.
Well, no wit, poet, statesman or hero can be
More dear to my heart than thou, D'Arcy McGee.
Wild heads may plan glories for Erin their mother,
Weak plans and wicked plans chasing each other;
To me worse than the loss of a sceptre and crown
Is a spot that might tarnish my children's renown,
'Tis the laurels they win are the jewels I prize,
They're the core of my heart and the light of my eyes;
For my children are gems and crown jewels to me,
And art thou not one of them, D'Arcy McGee! ”

“ They wrinkle their brows and draw near with austere familiarity; they retreat and let the sunshine and shadows play hide-and-seek round them, or lift their bald heads in still summer sunshine with calm joyfulness. The dwellers among them learn to love them through all their varying moods.
As I dreamed dreams the car driver, the surliest of his class which I have met, was urging a tired horse up a gradual ascent higher and higher among the hills, until we left houses, holdings, roads—except the gamekeeper's or bog rangers' track—far below us. ”

“ Glowed like a furnace 'neath a brazen sky.
O'er many a hearth red, burning ruin swept,
Till people fancied 'twas a flaming world;
All labour gained, and prudent care had kept,
And precious life were in one ruin hurled.
But as the fire fast spread, 'tis sweet to know,
So loving kindness and sweet pity ran;
This wide spread wail of human want and woe,
Served to bring out the brotherhood of man.
Here, on the lovely pine-fringed Allumette,
We hear the distant echoes of the jar,
Where Galile pluck and Teuton drill have met
In the long shock of cruel murderous war. ”

“ XVIII. IRISH HUSBANDRY—A DESCRIPTION OF LORD LEITRIM—ABOVE AND BELOW THE SALT—LANDLORD AND TENANT The valley through which the railway passes from Derry to Omagh is one long stretch of beauty, fertility and careful tillage. Every field, whatever its shape, is cultivated up to the fence and into the corners with a mathematical nicety. The regular fields, the green separating ditches with their grassy covering, the hills cultivated to the very tops, and the trees growing here and there all over made a landscape that should delight the heart of a farmer. ”

“ Father, Thy will be done
Oh make my will the same!
And teach me in this trying hour,
To glorify Thy name.
SERVANTS. They are but servants, say the words of scorning,
As though they meant to say, we're finer clay,
Yet, all the universe holds solemn warning,
Against this pride in creatures of a day
In fashion's last new folly, flaunting slowly,
With white plumes tossing on the Sabbath air
They pass with scornful words a sister lowly.
Do scornful lips know anything of prayer?
Alas! poor human nature's inconsistence,
Up to God's house we go, that we be fed ”

“ Whoever built it, the pride of its strength and the dread of its power have passed away forever. It is a very extensive ruin and covers a large tract of ground. It looks as if three solid, high, square buildings were set, not very regularly, end to end, the outer wall of one built in a semi-circle, and towers raised at every corner and every irregularity of the wall. Of course the roof was on the floor, turrets and towers have lost part of their height and stand, rent and ragged, tottering to their fall. ”

“ Friend, life's for thee, and death for me, Farewell'
DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. In the Capitol is mourning,
Mourning and woe this day,
For a nation's heart is throbbing—
A great man has passed away
It was yester'even only
Rejoicing wild and high,
Waving flags and shouting people
Proclaimed a victory
For our God had led our armies,
In the cause of truth and right,
It was, therefore, the brave Southren
Had bowed to Northern might.
Then flashed o'er the land the tidings,
The flush of joy to quell,
Fallen is the people's hero,
As William the Silent fell. ”

“ As we climbed from slippery rock to slippery rock, over long leathery coils of thick sea weed, like serpents, on, on through the Dorus to the open sea, noticing the dark passages, the gloomy caves, the recesses among the cliffs, the narrow passes, where one could turn to bay and keep off many, it was natural to think of rebels skulking here, with a price on their heads, after the '98, or of lawless people stilling illicit poteen to hide it from the gaugers. Sheltered by the rocks of Port-a-dorus, I could enjoy the sea air flavored with essence of sea weed. ”

“ ERIN, MAVOURNEEN. A Prize Poem.
I know Canada is fair to see, and pleasant; it is well
On the banks of its broad river 'neath the maple trees to dwell;
But the heart is very wilful, and in sorrow or in mirth,
Mine will turn with sore love-longing to the land that gave me birth;
And I wish that, oh but once again! my longing eyes might see
The green island that lies smiling on the bosom of the sea;
That is fed with heaven's dew and the fatness of the earth,
Fanned by wild Atlantic breezes that sweep over it in mirth. ”

“ A few words often change the world to us. I climbed the three-storey fort at Clones feeling sad and hopeless in the grey evening, everything seemed chill and dreary like the damp wind, and this man's cheery words of rejoicing over the prospect of good crops, over the yield of the little gardens, touched me as if sunset splendor had fallen over the world, and I came down comforted with the thought that our Father who gives fruitful seasons will also find a way for Ireland to emerge from the thick darkness of her present misery. ”

“ For thy mother's sake welcome, as well as for thine,
This town highest up in the Ottawa vale,
With the voice of pine forests gives cheer, and all hail
Our welcome as rude as the mountains may be,
But that cheer is the willing voiced shout of the free
And though rude be our welcome, you'll find us, I ween,
Most lovingly loyal to country and Queen.
Come and see our sweet lake, when its waters' at rest
Chafe not round the islands that sleep on its breast
And our woods many tinted in glory arrayed,
Dyed in rainbows and sunsets illumine the shade. ”

“ My errand to Dunany Castle was, strictly speaking, to gather the opinions of these gentlemen on the land question, but the quaint, foreign look of the castle, and the historic names of Butler and Bellingham, sent my mind off into the past, to the battle of the Boyne, and into the dimness beyond, when the war cry of "A Butler" was a rallying cry that had power in the green vales of Erin.
In the cold Celtic times when men held by the strong hand, the numerical fighting power of the clan was of the utmost importance, a chieftain being valued by the number of men who would follow him to the field. ”

“ I would praise the bonnie North,
And draw its legends forth
From cottage and from castle the pleasant country through
I'd make the land I loved in poesy to shine,
The Maine should flow along in "many a tuneful line,"
Songs praising hills and streams full sweetly should be mine,
And the legends I would sing,
From lip to lip should ring,
My native land should ask for, and hear my humble name;
When like her tuneful son,
Green laurels I had won,
I'd think her love for me was better far than fame. ”

“ His kith and kin by the Maine water's side,
Weep very sore for love of him that died.
Oh Death is ever coming, loved ones going,
Hearts rent with sorrow because one is not;
The waves of trouble ever swelling, flowing,
Past the tall castle, past the sheltered cot!
"I am bereaved!" is the unceasing moan,
Rising forever to our Father's throne.
O Christ Thou dost remember earthly weeping,
When the bereaved at Thy dear feet have cried,
Beside the grave where the much loved lay sleeping,
"Lord if Thou hadst been here he had not died." ”

“ Mount Cashel's Lord rules o'er a fair domain?
Or grass grown ruin all that's left to bear
Of a lost race the all but fading name?
The lovely Maine lingers in flowing through
The peaceful place that was my childhood's home,
Myriads of shamrocks on its margin grew,
Was it from these thy sisters thou hast come?
Such fair broad meadows by Maine water lay,
Erin her mantle green for carpet spread,
In merry childhood there we met to play,
Dashing the dew from many a shamrock's head.
Where sleep the village dead there is a spot
That's dearer far than all the rest to me ”

“ We have failed, we look with sorrow and fear
For woe that must come by Lake Allumette.
HOW PRINCE ARTHUR WAS WELCOMED TO PEMBROKE. Do you know the town Pembroke so loyal and long
And so worthy the praise of a poet in song?
Nestled down by the lake shore, that ripples and shines,
And hemmed in by the hills with their crowning of pines.
Now this town is that town so wondrous and fair,
Long thought to be but a chateau in the air,
Where the sons are all brave and the daughters all fair. ”

“ Except when their home was the mother's breast,
And worse than all she had to see
Them taught the secrets of sin and woe,
Which happier children never know
Alas! that such a thing should be
Her darlings were made to pass through the fire
To the Moloch of vice and sinful desire,
The father's example of life and tongue
Brought the knowledge of evil to them while young,
And in sorrow and shame,
That none may name,
In strife and sin all tempest-tost
The innocence God gives to babes was lost
All is over, nought's left but dishonoured clay,
But the evil men do lives longer than they. ”

“ But I know heroic souls beyond my feeble praise,
I know of calm endurance like the great of other days,
High deeds for battle song, worth a poet's noblest lays,
Of the pathos of the strife
In the lowly walks of life,
Of many an unknown hero that has won the victor's crown
And the lovely, lovely land,
Landscape fair, and castle grand,
Worthy the coming bard who will sing of their renown.
I love thee well, sweet Erin, though fate led another way;
I'll call thee still, mavourneen, when head and heart are grey ”

“ Bluebells swinging on their slender stems and cowslips on the lea.
I was better for the lessons they in childhood taught to me;
And still sweet is every memory, and blessed each regret
That twines round that dear island home, which our hearts cannot
forget.
From where Antrim's giant columns at the north are piled on high,
The sentinels of centuries tow'ring up against the sky,
From mountain top and purple heath, from valleys fair to see,
Where streams of flashing crystal bright are flowing merrily,
To Kerry's lakes of loveliness that dimple in the sun. ”

“ Of sorrow and sin, of anguish and tears
There have been martyrs for God and right,
Passed through blood and fire into endless light
Count all the martyrs to right that died
Since Abel's blood to Jehovah cried
There are but few in that shining throng
Compared to the martyrs of sin and wrong
Count not that woman's life by years,
Count by the dropping of heart-wrung tears
To the common lot of toil and care,
That dims the eye and the heart strings wring,
He added, of woe that none could share,
Whole ages of sorrow and suffering ”

“ Bidding your souls look up
Unto Him who has ordered all your lot,
To the Hand that will give the best,
That bids you come up to His home
To be His wedding guest.
BAPTISM IN LAKE ALLUMETTE Oh Allumette, hemmed with thy fringe of pine,
Watched over by thy mountains far away,
Thy waters have been troubled oftentime,
Never before as they have been to day!
The red man on the war path, with light stroke,
Hath cleaved thy waters moving stealthily;
Hunter and hunted deer thy surface broke
With splash and struggle of the living prey. ”

“ The past is laid by with the bridal wreath
The bride has come home a wife,
And now we pray that blessings may
Crown all your wedded life
What shall be the blessing, my dearest dear,
When it's all that we have to give?
That peace and love, from God above,
Be yours while ye both shall live.
That high love that makes of the wife a queen,
Of a cottage a palace home,
The coarse web fine, life's water wine,
The fire-side chair a throne.
Love that drops like dew from heaven to fill
With all blessing your earthly cup ”

“ Among those pure and precious who have known no earthly sinning,
The Beloved's fair white lilies in the Paradise of God,
Those He looked upon and loved, when their lives were but beginning,
And brought home before their tender feet grew weary of the road
There clothed on with his beauty, round the child all bliss will
gather,
All the brightness of the Father's face when looking on His own;
For the little children's angels see the bright face of the Father,
And gather on the rainbow steps that are around the throne. ”

“ O Erin, my mother Erin, dear land more kind than wise,
I think of thee till loving tears come thronging to my eyes.
Thou hast nourished on thy bosom many sons of deathless fame;
Who, while the world will last, shall shed a lustre on thy name.
While Foyle's proud swelling waters roll past Derry to the sea;
While yet a single vestige of old Limerick's walls there be;
Shall those who love thee well, fair land, lament that feuds divide
The sons of those who for each cause stood fast on either side. ”

“ Which o'er the Briton waves,
Than that whose stars of freedom shine
Upon the stripes of slaves.
We love our Queen—we love our laws;
We feel that we are free—
As independently we sit,
Each 'neath his maple tree.
Serene, while over other lands
Rolls revolution's storm,
Where they can't speak their grievances—
Dare not demand reform.
We can, as freeborn subjects, make
Our wants and wishes known—
Our voices move the parliament
And vibrate to the throne. ”

“ Human souls gave up their breath,
There were men who felt God's pity,
Strong to do and to endure,
And among these brave and noble,
At his post stood Norman Dewar
Firm and gentle, true and tender,
Knowing all the danger well,
This true son of old Glengarry
Stood on duty till he fell
Highland hearts have breasted battle,
Highland veterans show their scars,
Highland blood has flowed like water
In our Gracious Sovereign's wars.
We have praised in song and story,
Those who bravely fought and fell,
For Old England's might and glory,
For the Queen they love so well. ”

“ To mark a perfect man."
The rapture of a moment
Came suddenly to me;
With softened glance he asked me,
'Could you learn to think of me?'
The star of love shone o'er us,
His arm was round me thrown
And he fondly said he loved me
And loved but me alone
I was but a simple maiden
Village born and village bred
And when this crown of gladness
Dropped down upon my head
A simple maiden's feelings
That moment sprang awake
I wished myself rich, noble
And lovely for his sake
Ah, love akin to sorrow
Ah, ecstasy so fleet!
Why is parting made the surer
When the meeting is so sweet? ”

“ Till the waters of the Wabash dyed crimson flowed along.
"They ask us, in their pride,
To idly stand aside,
To be false to our allies, and neutral in this war;
They think that Indian men
Will never think again
Of wrongs by Yengee spoilers, how false their treaties are.
"Allies both firm and true,
For our Father's sake to you,
Our Great Father round whose throne the mighty waters meet;
When din of battle's high,
Only coward curs will fly;
It is not Shawnee braves show foes their flying feet," ”