622 BLANNAID. 



VIII. 



" I love thee, Blannaid, with a love 

 Which none can tell, and few can prove 

 But, by that God* for whom we raise 

 On mountain tops the holy blaze, 

 If from his burning throne above 

 He came to offer me thy love, 

 That I might spare one moment's pain 

 To him who ne'er shall smite again 

 By HIM but he would come in vain ! 

 Nay had he all his treasure given, 

 I'd spurn the rapture of his Heaven 

 Rather than one poor hour forego 

 A torture for my fallen foe. 



IX. 



" I've seen Binn Bouchi's eagle fly 

 As if his home were in the sky 

 And marked I still his daring flight, 

 Until he melted from my sight ; 

 When, if ten thousand voices there 

 Had shouted to the son of air, 

 Thine own soft, gentle, timid sigh 

 Had reached him sooner than that cry ; 

 I've seen Clan Lawrence flashing fall 

 Roll roaring from its mountain wall 

 Eight hundred feet from rock to rock, 

 Which totters with that watery shock : 

 Go ! stop that wheeling eagle's course 

 Arrest that torrent's frantic force 

 But think not, Blannaid, trust not e'er 

 To still one pulse of vengeance here ! 



X. 



" Thou can'st not hope time will erase 

 From out my soul my name's disgrace 

 When shame for knighthood's broken laws, 

 And shame unto the hand which draws 

 The sword on him who would not yield, 

 The captive of a well-fought field, 

 But that in battle's fitful game 

 Fortune had fled his honoured name : 

 Oh ! no the memory of that day 

 Shall never never pass away, 

 When, naked helpless lone I lay 



Upon the bloody plain ; 

 And every moan my anguish drew 

 And every look of rage I threw 



Was drawn and thrown in vain ! 

 And he thy husband whom to name 

 My lips should be enwrapp'd in flame 

 To wither and to blast him, came 

 And bound my bleeding limb.* 

 Approach, my Blannard, draw more near, 

 And let me whisper to thine ear, 

 Lest even a shrub or stone might hear 



" Baal whom the ancient Irish worshipped. 



t Custom of conquerors in single combat amongst the Irish, 



