Poem by Thomas Moore

From “Irish Melodies”. 22. Let Erin Remember the Days of Old

LET Erin remember the days of old,
      Ere her faithless sons betray’d her;
When Malachi wore the collar of gold,
      Which he won from her proud invader,
When her kings, with standard of green unfurl’d,
      Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger!
Ere the emerald gem of the western world
      Was set in the crown of a stranger.

On Lough Neagh’s bank as the fisherman strays,
      When the clear cold eve’s declining,
He sees the round towers of other days
      In the wave beneath him shining:
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,
      Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;
Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time,
      For the long-faded glories they cover.

1. From “Irish Melodies”. 41. Lesbia Hath a Beaming Eye
2. From “Irish Melodies”. 47. What the Bee Is to the Floweret
3. From “Irish Melodies”. 120. Oh, Could We Do with This World of Ours
4. From “Irish Melodies”. 48. Love and the Novice
5. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 27

Print

1910 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version