The Mourner's Soliloquy in the Ruined Abbey of Timoleague

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The Mourner's Soliloquy in the Ruined Abbey of Timoleague (Author: Seághan Ó Coileáin)

By Thomas Furlong

1] Abroad one night in loneliness I stroll'd,
2] Along the wave-worn beach my footpath lay;
3] Struggling the while with sorrows yet untold,
4] Yielding to cares that wore my strength away:
5] On as I mov'd, my wayward musings ran
6] O'er the strange turns that mark the fleeting life of man.
7] The little stars shone sweetly in the sky;
8] Not one faint murmur rose from sea or shore;
9] The wind with silent wing went slowly by,
10] As tho' some secret on its path it bore:
11] All, all was calm, — tree, flower, and shrub stood still,
12] And the soft moonlight slept on valley and on hill.

13] Sadly and slowly on my path of pain
14] I wander'd, idly brooding o'er my woes;
15] Till full before me on the far-stretched plain,
16] The ruin'd abbey's mouldering walls arose;
17] Where far from crowds, from courts and courtly crimes,
18] The sons of virtue dwelt, the boast of better times.
19] I paused — I stood beneath the lofty door,
20] Where once the friendless and the poor were fed;
21] That hallow'd entrance, that in days of yore
22] Still open'd wide to shield the wanderer's head;
23] The saint, the pilgrim, and the book-learn'd sage,
24] The knight, the travelling one, and the worn man of age.
25] I sat me down in melancholy mood,
26] My furrow'd cheek was resting on my hand;
27] I gazed upon that scene of solitude,
28] The wreck of all that piety had plann'd:
29] To my aged eyes the tears unbidden came,
30] Tracing in that sad spot our glory and our shame.

31] "And oh," cried I, as from my breast the while,
32] The struggling sigh of soul-felt anguish broke;
33] "A time there was, when through this storm-touch'd pile,
34] In other tones the voice of echo spoke;
35] Here other sounds and sights were heard and seen —
36] How alter'd is the place from what it once hath been!"
37] "Here in soft strains the solemn Mass was sung;
38] Through these long aisles the brethren bent their way;
39] Here the deep bell its wonted warning rung,
40] To prompt the lukewarm loitering one to pray;
41] Here the full choir sent forth its stream of sound,
42] And the rais'd censer flung rich fragrance far around."
43] How chang'd the scene! — how lonely now appears
44] The wasted aisle, wide arch, and lofty wall;
45] The sculptur'd shape — the pride of other years,
46] Now darken'd, shaded, sunk and broken all:
47] The hail, the rain, the sea-blown gales have done
48] Their worst, to crown the wreck by impious man begun.

49] Thro' the rent roof the aged ivy creeps;
50] Stretch'd on the floor the skulking fox is found;
51] The drowsy owl beneath the altar sleeps,
52] And the pert daws keep chattering all around;
53] The hissing weasel lurks apart unseen,
54] And slimy reptiles crawl where holy heads have been.
55] In the refectory now no food remains;
56] The dormitory boasts not of a bed;
57] Here rite or sacrifice no longer reigns;
58] Prior — brethren — prayers — and fasts and forms are fled:
59] Of each — of all, here rests not now a trace,
60] Save in these time-bleach'd bones that whiten o'er the place.
61] Oh! that such power to baseness was decreed;
62] Oh! that mischance such triumphs should supply;
63] That righteous heaven should let the vile succeed,
64] And leave the lonely virtuous one to die!
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65] Oh! justice, in the struggle where wert thou?
66] Thy foes have left this scene chang'd as we see it now.
67] I too have chang'd, — my days of joy are done,
68] My limbs grow weak, and dimness shades mine eye;
69] Friends — kindred — children, dropping one by one,
70] Beneath these walls now mouldering round me lie.
71] My look is sad, my heart has shrunk in grief,
72] Oh! death, when wilt thou come and lend a wretch relief.