58
ERIN.
Through ages of warfare and famine and prison
Her voice and her spirit were free:
But the longest night ends, and her name has uprisen:
The Sunburst is red on the sea!
What need of new songs? When his country is singing,
What word has the Poet to say.
But to drink her a toast while the joy-bells are ringing
The dawn of her opening day?
"O Bride of the Sea! may the world know your laughter
As well as it knows your tears!
As your past was for Freedom, so be your hereafter;
And through all your coming years
May no weak race be wronged, and no strong robber feared;
To oppressors grow hateful, to slaves more endeared;
Till the world comes to know that the test of a cause
Is the hatred of tyrants, and Erin's applause!"
