Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

Lament over the Ruins of the Abbey of Teach Molaga (Author: Seághan Ó Coileáin)

p.48

1. 1] I wandered forth at night alone
   2] Along the dreary, shingly, billow-beaten shore;
   3] Sadness that night was in my bosom's core,
   4] My soul and strength lay prone.
2. 5] The thin wan moon, half overveiled
   6] By clouds, shed her funereal beams upon the scene;
   7] While in low tones, with many a pause between,
   8] The mournful night-wind wailed.
3. 9] Musing of Life, and Death, and Fate,
   10] I slowly paced along, heedless of aught around,
   11] Till on the hill, now, alas! ruin-crowned,
   12] Lo! the old Abbey-gate!
4. 13] Dim in the pallid moonlight stood,
   14] Crumbling to slow decay, the remnant of that pile
   15] Within which dwelt so many saints erewhile
   16] In loving brotherhood!
5. 17] The memory of the men who slept
   18] Under those desolate walls— the solitude— the hour—
   19] Mine own lorn mood of mind— all joined to o'erpower
   20] My spirit— and I wept!
6. 21] In yonder Goshen once— I thought—
   22] Reigned Piety and Peace: Virtue and Truth were there;
   23] With Charity and the blessed spirit of Prayer
   24] Was each fleet moment fraught!
7. 25] There, unity of Work and Will
   26] Blent hundreds into one: no jealousies or jars
   27] Troubled their placid lives: their fortunate stars
   28] Had triumphed o'er all Ill!
8. 29] There, knolled each morn and even
   30] The Bell for Matin and Vesper: Mass was said or sung.—
   31] From the bright silver censer as it swung
   32] Rose balsamy clouds to Heaven.

---

p.49

9. 33] Through the round cloistered corridors
   34] A many a midnight hour, bareheaded and unshod,
   35] Walked the Grey Friars, beseeching from their God
   36] Peace for these western shores!
10. 37] The weary pilgrim bowed by Age
    38] Oft found asylum there— found welcome, and found wine.
    39] Oft rested in its halls the Paladine,
    40] The Poet and the Sage!
11. 41] Alas! alas! how dark the change!
    42] Now round its mouldering walls, over its pillars low,
    43] The grass grows rank, the yellow gowans blow,
    44] Looking so sad and strange!
12. 45] Unsightly stones choke up its wells;
    46] The owl hoots all night long under the altar-stairs;
    47] The fox and badger make their darksome lairs
    48] In its deserted cells!
13. 49] Tempest and Time— the drifting sands—
    50] The lightnings and the rains— the seas that sweep around
    51] These hills in winter-nights, have awfully crowned
    52] The work of impious hands!
14. 53] The sheltering, smooth-stoned massive wall—
    54] The noble figured roof— the glossy marble piers—
    55] The monumental shapes of elder years—
    56] Where are they? Vanished all!
15. 57] Rite, incense, chant, prayer, mass, have ceased—
    58] All, all have ceased! Only the whitening bones half sunk
    59] In the earth now tell that ever here dwelt monk,
    60] Friar, acolyte, or priest.
16. 61] Oh! woe, that Wrong should triumph thus!
    62] Woe that the olden right, the rule and the renown
    63] Of the Pure-souled and Meek should thus go down
    64] Before the Tyrannous!
17. 65] Where wert thou, Justice, in that hour?
    66] Where was thy smiting sword? What had those good men done,
    67] That thou shouldst tamely see them trampled on
    68] By brutal England's Power?

---

p.50

18. 69] Alas! I rave! ... If Change is here,
    70] Is it not o'er the land? Is it not too in me?
    71] Yes! I am changed even more than what I see.
    72] Now is my last goal near!
19. 73] My worn limbs fail— my blood moves cold—
    74] Dimness is on mine eyes— I have seen my children die;
    75] They lie where I too in brief space shall lie—
    76] Under the grassy mould!
20. 77] I turned away, as toward my grave,
    78] And, all my dark way homeward by the Atlantic's verge,
    79] Resounded in mine ears like to a dirge
    80] The roaring of the wave.