Darkly grows the quiet ivy,

pale the broken arches glimmer through;

Dark upon the cloister-garden

dreams the shadow of the ancient yew.

[20]

Through the roofless aisles the verdure

flows, the meadow-sweet and foxglove bloom;

Earth, the mother and consoler,

winds soft arms about the lonely tomb.

Peace and holy gloom possess him,

last of Gaelic monarchs of the Gael,

Slumbering by the young, eternal

river-voices of the western vale.

Ruraidh O’Conchobhar, last High King of Ireland, spent the closing fifteen years of his life in the monastery of St. Fechin at Cong, Co. Mayo. His grave is still shown in that most beautiful and pathetic of Irish ruins. Some accounts have it that his remains were afterwards transferred to Clonmacnois by the Shannon.

[21]

[21]

 SONG OF MAELDUIN

There are veils that lift, there are bars that fall,

There are lights that beckon and winds that call—

Goodbye!

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