DESMOND'S SONG.[1]
Reading edition
DESMOND'S SONG.[1]
By the Feal's wave benighted, No star in the skies, To thy door by Love lighted, I first saw those eyes. Some voice whispered o'er me, As the threshold I crost, There was ruin before me, If I loved, I was lost.
Love came, and brought sorrow Too soon in his train; Yet so sweet, that to-morrow 'Twere welcome again. Though misery's full measure My portion should be, I would drain it with pleasure, If poured out by thee.
You, who call it dishonor To bow to this flame, If you've eyes, look but on her, And blush while you blame. Hath the pearl less whiteness Because of its birth? Hath the violet less brightness For growing near earth?
No—Man for his glory To ancestry flies; But Woman's bright story Is told in her eyes.
While the Monarch but traces Thro' mortals his line, Beauty, born of the Graces, Banks next to Divine!
[1] "Thomas, the heir of the Desmond family, had accidentally been so engaged in the chase, that he was benighted near Tralee, and obliged to take shelter at the Abbey of Feal, in the house of one of his dependents, called Mac Cormac. Catherine, a beautiful daughter of his host, instantly inspired the Earl with a violent passion, which he could not subdue. He married her, and by this inferior alliance alienated his followers, whose brutal pride regarded this indulgence of his love as an unpardonable degradation of his family."—Leland, vol. ii.