Roderick J. Flanagan

“ Yes, coming events do cast their shadows, and I behold many circumstances which enable me to anticipate the future history of Ireland. The rising generation is not as submissive as their fathers were. It may not be equally safe to treat them ill as it is to ill-treat us. The rising youth of Ireland appear to have their pulses beating with better blood, and I have remarked more than once that, while I myself was tranquil, the eye of youth, scarce reached beyond childhood, was glistening, with indignation at the history of six centuries of misgovernment which this country has endured. ”

“ Those flowing locks, with gold-light vieing;
Those blooms, like flowers 'mid winter's snow.
Have long to me been cause of sighing.
Long felt I, maid, the pains that come
From loving with a love unspoken;
As streams more deep will aye become
Till bounds impeding them are broken.
In vain each devious art I try
From thoughts of thee to gain diversion;
In vain I wander, vain I fly,
My steadfast heart rejects desertion. ”

“ The father plies his anxious skill to ward th' intruding wave.
Through all the night the danger grows, and when the morning beamed
How altered was the scene whereon the azure twilight streamed;
It seemed as though the Bow of Hope had lost its promised sway,
And that the earth, with all its tribes, its sins again should pay.
The sun arose, as erst he came, but not as erst the scene
Whereon his cheering rays descend. Instead of landscape green
A wide extending waste of wave gave back his light-some glance,
Where 'mid the perches of the birds the reckless eddies dance. ”

“ Its pleasant home; these and unnumbered charms
Beside, in sep'rate order rise to hold.
Like bird in beauty's bower, the Fancy caged.
Upon the swelling, noisy waves intent,
That with a blustering and an awkward grace
Pay court where ocean comes to steal a glance,
I pictured thee a maiden fair, hard-wooed
By lover grey—a gallant poor in years.
But rich in gold and silver; ships that bear
From every clime their proper fruits and wares ”

“ To thee I ne'er have breath'd my soul;
My passion ne'er to thee could tell;
So strong the tie, such firm control
Had bound me in thy beauty's spell.
By looks alone our hearts communed.
Oh! when did lips such language know? ”

“ Where'er a touch of Nature's hand has struck one early string,
There chiefly tend those airy sprites on gay and lightsome wing.
Where'er a brilliant joy has gleamed, a cherished hope lies hid
There go and come this wakeful band, untutored and unhid.
And often in joy's winter time, when cheerless bodings press,
When th' exile deems himself alone, or feels his hopes grow less. ”

“ Not cruel formed, to neither will she speak
The harsh denial. Though her kindest glance
Rests on the youth, to neither speaks she aye;
But adds to their already ardent love
By each fresh charm her doubting calls to life. ”

“ With face that scowls, and voice that speaks of fear
Not such thou art, and falsely they attaint
Th' angelic order who nor scowl nor frown.
Who thus depict thee. Ever have I found
Thee one whom beauty's mildest charms surround. ”

“ Though the song of thy praise ne'er a hand should awaken.
And no soldier to right thee in battle should burn;
Unchanged and unchanging, whate'er shall betide thee,
This fond heart shall love thee till its life-spark depart ”

“ APPEAL TO POETRY.
As one with am'rous breast, and prompt to glow
'Neath ev'ry wave of beauty's magic spell
Loves without hope of winning, yet loves well.
Such homage, Muse of Song! to thee I owe. ”

“ Grant that the maid who leads my heart
May all thy richest gifts enjoy;
Nathless my vows no joy impart.
May Chloris' bliss meet no alloy.
Grant that the aged may blessings shower;
Grant that the young may guard from ill ”

“ For thee the good and brave have died.
And love of wealth, and love of lore,
And various promptings striving still—
Thoughts, feelings, instincts, wondrous store,
Disturbed the breast or swayed the will. ”

“ With light, and calm, and promise filled; the noon,
Like later years, when passions rage, full soon
To drive the wise to balmy fonts of truth;
The eve like age, when, seeing all earth bleak.
On high men look, their guiding lights to seek. ”

“ Filling the senate-hall with beauty's glow!
Men may found states, win conquests, freedom prize,
But in the lapse of time, 'mid passion's rage,
This truth we glean in each historic page:
Woman most bids a nation's virtues rise. ”

“ Where social charms yet scant'ly spring.
May call his fancy's view before
Some joy to which his soul would cling.
Some friend in trying hour made dear,
Some form towards which affection bends.
Some mate by kindred drawn more near.
To the farewell deep sadness lends.
And ah! to think mayhap we part
To meet no more on earthly scene! ”

“ In every feature of that glowing face,
Where all the maiden charms do harmonize,
Where all those graces we as beauty prize
Are found combined, how well the eye may trace
What speaks thee one of Judith's, Esther's line! ”

“ They fought the fight of sternest life, with steady heart and hand.
And left their fate to landmark an unmonumented land.
When deep and rapid comes the flood by hamlets free from fear,
And when the rivers' lessening banks speak an abundant year. ”

“ Thy boundless love for all thy kith and kin—
The Irish people—dost thou greatly win
Our best esteem. Nor for that higher part
Of mind in thee, so good, so large, so strong—
The poet's genius and the poet's skill. ”

“ When winter's terrors doubled value give
To all the wealth domestic virtues hoard.
Bright change to Spring's delightful bloom we want —
Our fadeless woods know neither spring nor fall;
We miss the visions that the soul enchant. ”

“ Might pale before achievements thou hadst done.
In second Petrarch's hand how would'st thou write
In e'er-enduring lines the tale of love;
In second Shakspeare's hand how would'st thou move
Mankind, unmasked, before the spell-bound sight. ”

“ More glorious advent than your cymbals tell.
And as the signs that marked her nascent hours,
So be the virtues of Australia's youth—
A trumpet voice to speak the words of truth,
A lion's force to brunt war's sternest powers ”

“ LIGHT IN THE SHADE.
Even in the olden time, when books were rare,
And men from Nature chiefly had their lore,
The world, if wanting letters, lacked not store
Of sagest teachings for the student's share. ”

“ Strong's the whisper heard within us,
When the heart is good and sound;
But in Chloris' lovely features
Better teaching far is found.
Yes, where grace and beauty mingle,
There is virtue's surest friend ”

“ Fair is the temple towering to the skies,
To teach the mighty city that above
Lies the eternal land most worthy love;
Fair each palatial home, where greatly rise
Virtues to guide a gazing nation's way ”

“ For dull-eyed care still flies with lightning bound
Where blooming youth and florid health reside.
Late when I mused—wherefore did nature try
To make a work so perfect if decay
A few brief summers hence assert its sway? ”

“ With fire more pure, beholding all thy charms—
And when the murmuring lips, compelled, proclaim
In words inaudible, but most intense,
Thy hundred beauties ; when with lingering gaze
Enchanted vision rests on every scene
By fav'ring Nature formed on plan for thee
And only thee, with skill unequalled wrought ”

“ Unmeasured plaudits greet thy name, good chief!
Where'er old Erin's sons the sound shall hear,
Where'er the scoffer's taunt—the doubter's fear-
Would damp the order of the fixed belief
That nations fall to rise. ”

“ Her spotless skin, surpassing snow.
Transparent, lustrous, white.
My love is frank, good-natured, kind;
Not scornful, proud, or small of mind;
Her tones are music to the poor,
And young men list but to adore. ”

“ All pleasures in the future dream'd by prophets or by seers.
They'll realise in charms which lie in dreams of bygone years,
With more than song's excelling art, a blissful calm they'll find,
And driving hence each growing fear, they'll leave repose behind. ”

“ Who know no guile, and deck each happy sphere
Where their bright forms, e'er welcome, do appear?
Are they not stars, and more, who with the powers
Divine that made the stars are close allied
In soul, and yet above the stars will bide? ”

“ Beside the thorn a young man stands,
When home have sped the toiling bands
And evening's veil gives all the lands
A grateful shade;
His eyes rest on the farm-house near,
For one is there than life more dear ”

“ There is nothing fills my heart with a more bitter sense of degradation and indignity than that my equals, those men to whom neither birth, nor fortune, nor education, nor, I humbly conceive, intellect, can give any claim to superiority over me, should come upon me with the air of patronage and protection. — O'Connell
There was a period of similar importance in the history of England. ”

“ The busy crowd. There thrifty housewives walk.
To buy their Sabbath store. Unmeetly joined
There plods the female whom no joy refined
Shall ever bless; unholy heart, there stalk
The hoary ribald and the unthinking youth ”

“ Shall be the plains where, aftertime, my sons will lead the dance;
And not more pure th' Italian skies than skies above my soil.
And streams as broad, as rich as Nile shall bless my peasants' toil.
Rich are the gifts Columbia gives to those who cross the wave,
Bright are the ores she brings to light, where delves the weary slave ”

“ Written after a persual of Washington Irving's "Life of Columbus."
Who war's unyielding work successful speed,
In victor's laurels still acquire their meed;
A just reward, by fame, is ever found
For wit, for eloquence, and lore profound ”

“ When happy homes should line thy bounteous banks,
And maids; like Mary Anne, should bide
Amid thy vales, and in thy sunny tide,
Mirror their graceful forms. Thus yielding thanks
For ev'ry fleeting joy, the true hearts know
No change, let sadness come or fortune's favours flow. ”

“ Ah me! those lips that like a bursting rose,
The teeth that rival snow-drops half enclose.
Ah me! those eyes that cheering radiance throw
Like kindly stars that through the tempest peep.
When ships lie hopeless in the troubled deep. ”

“ Authority is hurtful to the bloom
Of all th' adornments that are seen to throw
Around the paths of life their welcome glow.
No flower or balmy shrub dispels the gloom
That marks the high-set cliff; but round the base.
Sometimes we see wild blossoms thickly strewn.
Nursed by the sheltered warmth the rock has thrown. ”

“ Upturning, to relieve his need.
Till, having lost his patience quite,
He was about to change his site,
When something beautiful to view
Came forth—it was a gay bijou—
A diamond from Peru's mines. ”

“ The maturity of life has reached me in the struggle, but yet my step is firm, and my arm, too, is not unnerved; so that I should not feel any personal deficiency to deter me from joining in the battle's roar in the cause of my country. ”

“ Above her children's roofless bed
The father strides with measured tread,
Where frets the gale.
A chariot moves in stately show,
There, near the highway, hedges grow,
The peasants, as they pass, bend low. ”

“ When fleeting ages pile their store
Of greatness, gathering day by day.
↑ Bondi Beach is situate about five miles south of the Sydney Heads, and on a line, in an easterly direction, with the City of Sydney. It is a mile in extent, and over its entire length the waves of the pacific roll continually in mountainous swells. The tumultuous roar of the waters on the beach, and among the neighbouring rocks, is at all times considerable, and during certain phases of the atmosphere is distinctly heard throughout the eastern quarters of the city, at a distance of six or seven miles. ”

“ The allusion to the girl's country in the lines will be understood when it is mentioned, that, at the period of the occurrence, Ireland had scarcely recovered from the effects of the famine of 1848, and which, even in a land for centuries subject to frequently recurring evils, has not been surpassed in its horrifying details.—Author's Note, May, 1852. ”

“ It is to be regretted that his death prevented the publication of those essays in book form.
Much that passes for brilliant poetry now-a-days is generally a matter of patience and labour, combined with verbal dexterity and what may be described as a skilful process of assimilation. The faculty alluded to may exist unmingled with a single particle of the genuine quality which it counterfeits. ”

“ May she never force Ireland to imitate America, — O'Connell
According to principles of computation which appear to be extremely moderate, the quantity of gold and silver that has been regularly entered in the ports of Spain is equal in value to four millions sterling annually, reckoning from the year 1492, in which America was discovered, to the present time. ”

“ The cover off, two plates came forth,
Filled up with richest steaming broth.
Stork made a dive, but lo! his beak
Upon the delf resounded creak;
For well you know from shallow cup
A crane or stork can never sup. ”

“ From pole to pole, the harbinger of man.
Such deeds relating—shall the historian say,
'Twas thus the Briton held his glorious way"
↑ These verses were written in a small county town, nearly 200 miles distant from the metropolis, and were suggested by the wondrous evidences of the progress of civilization which were everywhere visible—a progress the more striking when viewed in relation to the apparently insuperable obstacles which had been overcome in carrying civilization so far into the interior of a rugged and inhospitable country.—Jan. 1855. ”