Page:The Spirit of the Nation.djvu/18

6 IV.

The riderless war-steed careers o'er the plain

With a shaft in his flank and a blood dripping mane,

His gallant breast labours, and glare his wild eyes;

He plunges in torture—falls—shivers—and dies.

V.

Let the trumpets ring triumph! the tyrant is slain,

He reels o'er his charger deep pierced through the brain;

And his myriads are flying like leaves on the gale,

But, who shall escape from our hills with the tale?

VI.

For the arrows of vengeance are show'ring like rain,

And choke the strong rivers with islands of slain,

Till thy waves, "lordly Shannon," all crimsonly flow,

Like the billows of hell with the blood of the foe.

VII.

Aye! the foemen are flying, but vainly they fly—

Revenge, with the fleetness of lightning, can vie;

And the septs of the mountains spring up from each rock,

And rush down the ravines like wolves on the flock.

VIII.

And who shall pass over the stormy Slieve Bloom,

To tell the pale Saxon of tyranny's doom;

When, like tigers from ambush, our fierce mountaineers,

Leap along from the crags with their death-dealing spears?

IX.

They came with high boasting to bind us as slaves;

But the glen and the torrent have yawned for their graves—

From the gloomy Ardfinnan to wild Templemore—

From the Suir to the Shannon—is red with their gore.

X.

By the soul of Heremon! our warriors may smile,

To remember the march of the foe through our isle;