Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/156

152 And when that all was tasted, then at last
 * We thirsted still for draughts instead of sips.

I learned from this there is no Southern land
 * Can fill with love the hearts of Northern men.

Sick minds need change; but, when in health they stand
 * 'Neath foreign skies, their love flies home agen.

And thus with me it was: the yearning turned
 * From laden airs of cinnamon away,

And stretched far westward, while the full heart burned
 * With love for Ireland, looking on Cathay!

My first dear love, all dearer for thy grief!
 * My land, that has no peer in all the sea

For verdure, vale, or river, flower or leaf,—
 * If first to no man else, thou 'rt first to me.

New loves may come with duties, but the first
 * Is deepest yet,—the mother's breath and smiles:

Like that kind face and breast where I was nursed
 * Is my poor land, the Niobe of isles.