Too young for love?

And Autumn folds his jewelled armsAround the dying year;So, ere the waning seasons claimOur leafless groves awhile,With golden wine and glowing flameWe ’ll crown our lonely isle.Once more the merry voices soundWithin the antlered hall,And long and loud the baying houndsReturn the hunter’s call;And through the woods, and o’er the hill,And far along the bay,The…

Thy wand for one moment we fondly would claim,Entranced while it summons the phantoms around usThat blush into life at the sound of thy name.The tell-tales of memory wake from their slumbers,–I hear the old song with its tender refrain,What passion lies hid in those honey-voiced numbers!What perfume of youth in each exquisite strain!The home…

Nor yet unknown to many a joyous meetingIn days long vanished,– is he still the same,Or changed by years, forgotten and forgetting,Dull-eared, dim-sighted, slow of speech and thought,Still o’er the sad, degenerate present fretting,Where all goes wrong, and nothing as it ought?Old age, the graybeard! Well, indeed, I know him,–Shrunk, tottering, bent, of aches and…

That knit his swarthy brow,And said the gentle Pig must die,And sealed it with a vow.And oh! it was the gentle PigLay stretched upon the ground,And ah! it was the cruel knifeHis little heart that found.They took him then, those wicked men,They trailed him all along;They put a stick between his lips,And through his heels…

Where loving hearts his early doom deplore;Youth, promise, virtue, all that made him dearHeaven lent, earth borrowed, sorrowing to restore.

Hushed in the silent dews of nightThe harp of Erin lies.What though her thousand years have pastOf poets, saints, and kings,–Her echoes only hear the lastThat swept those golden strings.Fling o’er his mound, ye star-lit bowers,The balmiest wreaths ye wear,Whose breath has lent your earth-born flowersHeaven’s own ambrosial air.Breathe, bird of night, thy softest tone,By…