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The West's Asleep

Author: Thomas Osborne Davis

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Electronic edition compiled by Beatrix Färber

Proof corrections by Beatrix Färber

1. First draft, revised and corrected.

Extent of text: 750 words

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Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
Text ID Number: E850004-031

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Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.

Sources

Source
1. First published in the Nation on 22 July 1843.

Other writings by Thomas Davis
1. Thomas Davis, Essays Literary and Historical, ed. by D. J. O'Donoghue, Dundalk 1914.
2. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (ed.), Thomas Davis, the memoirs of an Irish patriot, 1840-1846. 1890. [Reprinted entitled 'Thomas Davis' with an introduction of Brendan Clifford. Millstreet, Aubane Historical Society, 2000.]
3. Thomas Davis: selections from his prose and poetry. [Edited] with an introduction by T. W. Rolleston. London and Leipzig: T. Fisher Unwin (Every Irishman's Library). 1910. [Published in Dublin by the Talbot press, 1914.]
4. Thomas Osborne Davis, Literary and historical essays 1846. Reprinted 1998, Washington, DC: Woodstock Books.
5. Essays of Thomas Davis. New York, Lemma Pub. Corp. 1974, 1914 [Reprint of the 1914 ed. published by W. Tempest, Dundalk, Ireland, under the title 'Essays literary and historical'.]
6. Thomas Davis: essays and poems, with a centenary memoir, 1845-1945. Dublin, M.H. Gill and Son, 1945. [Foreword by an Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera.]
7. Angela Clifford, Godless colleges and mixed education in Ireland: extracts from speeches and writings of Thomas Wyse, Daniel O'Connell, Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy, Frank Hugh O'Donnell and others. Belfast: Athol, 1992.

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CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

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Profile Description

Created: by Thomas Davis (1843)

Use of language

Language: [EN] The text is in English.

Revision History

• (2012-05-14)

  Beatrix Färber (ed.)

• Header created; file proofed (1, 2), structural markup applied, file parsed; SGML and HTML files created.
• (1996)

  Audrey Murphy (ed.)

• Text captured by scanning.

Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E850004-031

The West's Asleep: Author: Thomas Osborne Davis

p.349

1. When all beside a vigil keep,
   The West's asleep, the West's asleep—
   Alas! and well may Erin weep,
   When Connaught lies in slumber deep.
   There lake and plain smile fair and free,
   'Mid rocks—their guardian chivalry—
   Sing oh! let man learn liberty
   From crashing wind and lashing sea.
2. That chainless wave and lovely land
   Freedom and Nationhood demand—
   Be sure, the great God never planned,
   For slumbering slaves, a home so grand.
   And, long, a brave and haughty race
   Honoured and sentinelled the place—
   Sing oh! not even their sons' disgrace
   Can quite destroy their glory's trace.

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p.350

3. For often, in O'Connor's van,
   To triumph dashed each Connaught clan—
   And fleet as deer the Normans ran
   Through Corlieu's Pass and Ardrahan.
   And later times saw deeds as brave;
   And glory guards Clanricarde's grave—
   Sing oh! they died their land to save,
   At Aughrim's slopes and Shannon's wave.
4. And if, when all a vigil keep,
   The West's asleep, the West's asleep—
   Alas! and well may Erin weep,
   That Connaught lies in slumber deep.
   But, hark! some voice like thunder spake:
   "The West's awake! the West's awake!"—
   "Sing oh! hurra! let England quake,
   We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!"