Clinton Scollard

On Caragh Lake

    I

  On Caragh lake the evening light
    Is violet and amethyst,
  And the dark shadows of the pines
    In silence keep their twilight tryst.

  And high beyond the purple groves,
    The sweeping moors, the climbing fells,
  The rugged Kerry mountains stand
    Like grim eternal sentinels.

  In dying whispers on the shore
    The ripples lap, the ripples break,
  And there is peace beyond all words
    As night descends on Caragh lake!

    II

  In unexpected grooves of flight
    A blundering bat swoops swiftly by;
  From out a coppice drifts a bird's
    Last plaintive melody.

  The lake is like a mirror dim
    With no disturbing breath to mar,
  While o'er a lonely fell there burns
    One white vespernal star.