Thomas Moore

“ That beauty and the moon were made;
'Tis then their soft attractions glowing
Set the tides and goblets flowing.
Oh! stay,— Oh! stay,—
Joy so seldom weaves a chain
Like this to-night, that oh! ”

“ There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale, in whose bosom the bright waters meet† [2] ;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart. ”

“ Like a truant, her sword, in the long-slighted cause
Of the Shamrock of Erin, and Olive of Spain!
IV.
God prosper the cause!—oh! it cannot but thrive,
While the pulse of one patriot heart is alive,
Its devotion to feel, and its rights to maintain ”

“ Will return with to-morrow to brighten my brow.
No, life is a waste of wearisome hours,
Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
And the heart, that is soonest awake to the flowers,
Is always the first to be touched by the thorns! ”

“ Still doth the pure light its dawning delay!
When will that day-star, mildly springing,
Warm our isle with peace and love?
When will heaven, its sweet bell ringing,
Call my spirit to the fields above? ”

“ Take back the virgin page,
White and unwritten still;
Some hand, more calm and sage,
The leaf must fill.
Thoughts come, as pure as light,
Pure as even you require;
But oh! each word I write
Love turns to fire. ”

“ Never, oh! never its halm bestowing
On lips, that beauty hath seldom blest!
But when some warm devoted lover
To her he adores shall bathe its brim,
Then, then my spirit around shall hover,
And hallow each drop that foams for him.
↑ "In every house was one or two harps, free to all travellers, who were the more caressed, the more they excelled in music." O'Halloran. ”

“ The people were inspired with such a spirit of honour, virtue and religion, by the great example of Brien, and by his excellent administration, that, as a proof of it, we are informed that a young lady of great beauty, adorned with jewels and a costly dress, undertook a journey alone from one end of the kingdom to the other, with a wand only in her hand, at the top of which was a ring of exceeding great value ”

“ Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade
Where cold and unhonor'd his relics are laid:
Sad, silent and dark, be the tears that we shed,
As the night-dew that falls on the grass o'er his head! ”

“ To be wither'd and stain'd by the dust of the schools.
Your glass may be purple, and mine may be blue,
But, while they are filled from the same bright bowl,
The fool, who would quarrel for difference of hue,
Deserves not the comfort they shed o'er the soul. ”

“ Every thought of my reason was thine:
In my last humble prayer to the Spirit above,
Thy name shall be mingled with mine!
Oh! blest are the lovers and friends who shall live
The days of thy glory to see ”

“ Erin! the tear and the smile in thine eyes,
Blend like the rainbow that hangs in thy skies!
Shining through sorrow's stream,
Saddening through pleasure's beam,
Thy suns, with doubtful gleam,
Weep while they rise! ”

“ Oh! still remember me.
When the praise thou meetest
To thine ear is sweetest,
Oh! then remember me.
Other arms may press thee,
Dearer friends caress thee,
All the joys that bless thee
Sweeter far may be ”

“ Tell how they liv'd and died.
↑ I have endeavoured here, without losing that Irish character, which it is ray object to preserve throughout this work, to allude to the sad and ominous fatality, by which England has been deprived of so many great and good men, at a moment when she most requires all the aids of talent and integrity. ↑ This designation, which has been applied to LORD NELSON before, is the title given to a celebrated Irish Hero, in a Poem by O'Gnive, the bard of O'Niel, which is quoted in the "Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland." ”

“ EVELEEN'S BOWER.
I.
Oh! weep for the hour,
When to Eveleen's bower
The Lord of the valley with false vows came;
The moon hid her light
From the heavens that night,
Arid wept behind her clouds o'er the maiden's shame.
The clouds past soon
From the chaste, cold moon,
And heaven smiPd again with her vestal flame;
But none will see the day,
When the clouds shall pass away,
Which that dark hour left upon Eveleen's fame. ”

“ Senanus, which is taken from an old Kilkenny MS. and may be found among the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae we are told of his flight to the island of Scattery, and his resolution not to admit any woman of the party; he refused to receive even a sister saint, St. Cannera, whom an angel had taken to the island, for the express purpose of introducing her to him. ”

“ The wounded men entreated that they might be allowed to fight with the rest.-- "Let stakes (they said) be stuck in the ground, and suffer each of us, tied to and supported by one of these stakes, to be placed in his rank by the side of a sound man." ”

“ One chord from that harp, or one lock from that hair*. [1]
↑ In the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Henry VIII. an Act was made respecting the habits, and dress in general, of the Irish, whereby all persons were restrained from being shorn or shaven above the ears, or from wearing Glibbes, or Coulins, (long locks) on their heads, or hair on their upper lip, called Crommeal. ”

“ They stirr'd not, but conquer'd and died!
The sun, that now blesses our arms with his light,
Saw them fall upon Ossory's plain!--
Oh! let him not blush, when he leaves us to-night,
To find that they fell there in vain!
↑ Brien Borombe, the great Monarch of Ireland, who was killed at the battle of Clontarf, in the beginning of the 11th century, after having defeated the Danes in twenty-five engagements. ↑ Munster. ↑ The palace of Brien. ”

“ Book 9. ↑ "Military orders of knights were very early established in Ireland; long before the birth of Christ we find an hereditary order of Chivalry in Ulster, called Curaidhe na Craoibhe ruadh, or the knights of the Red Branch, from their chief seat in Emania, adjoiniug to the palace of the Ulster kings, called Teagh na Craoibhe ruadh, or the Academy of the Bed Branch ”

“ He says that the fishermen, in clear weather, used to point out to strangers the tall ecclesiastical towers under the water. Piscatores aquae illius turres ecclesiasticas, quce more patrice arctce sunt et altae, necnon et rotunda, sub undis manifeste, sereno tempore conspiciunt et extraneis transeuntibus, reique causas admirantibus, frequenter ostendunt. ”