Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Girl of Dunbwy (Author: Thomas Osborne Davis)
p.360
- 'Tis pretty to see the girl of Dunbwy
Stepping the mountain statelily
Though ragged her gown, and naked her feet,
No lady in Ireland to match her is meet.
- Poor is her diet, and hardly she lies
Yet a monarch might kneel for a glance of her eyes.
The child of a peasantyet England's proud Queen
Has less rank in her heart, and less grace in her mien.
- Her brow 'neath her raven hair gleams, just as if
A breaker spread white 'neath a shadowy cliff
And love, and devotion, and energy speak
From her beauty-proud eye, and her passion-pale cheek.
- But, pale as her cheek is, there's fruit on her lip,
And her teeth flash as white as the crescent moon's tip,
And her form and her step like the red-deer's go past
As lightsome, as lovely, as haughty, as fast.
- I saw her but once, and I looked in her eye,
And she knew that I worshipped in passing her by;
The saint of the waysideshe granted my prayer,
Though we spoke not a word, for her mother was there.
- I never can think upon Bantry's bright hills,
But her image starts up, and my longing eye fills;
And I whisper her softly, "Again, love, we'll meet!
And I'll lie in your bosom, and live at your feet."