A Lament For The Princes Of Tyrone And Tyrconnel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCABCDEFDEF AGAAGHDIFDIF GFAGFAJKFJLF MNJMJJMFJMFJ MJGMJGJFDJFD GJFGJFOFJOFJ DFFDFFPFGPFG JMQJMQMMHMMH FJPFJPDRFDQF GSJGSJJATJAT FUMFGMVFGVFG JJMJJHJAFJAF JJJJHJMJMMJM WFDXFDMJJMJJ FJDFJDDJGDJG HMAHMAJMJJMJ MJFMJFFJJFJJ FFJFFJO woman of the piercing wail | A |
Who mournest o'er yon mound of clay | B |
With sigh and groan | C |
Would God thou wert among the Gael | A |
Thou would'st not then from day to day | B |
Weep thus alone | C |
'Twere long before around a grave | D |
In green Tyrconnel one could find | E |
This loneliness | F |
Near where Beann Boirche's banners wave | D |
Such grief as thine could ne'er have pined | E |
Companionless | F |
- | |
Beside the wave in Donegal | A |
In Antrim's glens or fair Dromore | G |
Or Killilee | A |
Or where the sunny waters fall | A |
At Assaroe near Erna shore | G |
This could not be | H |
On Derry's plains in rich Drumcliff | D |
Throughout Armagh the Great renowned | I |
In olden years | F |
No day could pass but woman's grief | D |
Would rain upon the burial ground | I |
Fresh floods of tears | F |
- | |
O no From Shannon Boyne and Suir | G |
From high Dunluce's castle walls | F |
From Lissadill | A |
Would flock alike both rich and poor | G |
One wail would rise from Cruachan's halls | F |
To Tara Hill | A |
And some would come from Barrow side | J |
And many a maid would leave her home | K |
On Leitrim's plains | F |
And by melodious Banna's tide | J |
And by the Mourne and Erne to come | L |
And swell thy strains | F |
- | |
O horses' hoofs would trample down | M |
The mount whereon the martyr saint | N |
Was crucified | J |
From glen and hill from plain and town | M |
One loud lament one thrilling plaint | J |
Would echo wide | J |
There would not soon be found I ween | M |
One foot of ground among those bands | F |
For museful thought | J |
So many shriekers of the keen | M |
Would cry aloud and clap their hands | F |
All woe distraught | J |
- | |
Two princes of the line of Conn | M |
Sleep in their cells of clay beside | J |
O'Donnell Roe | G |
Three royal youths alas are gone | M |
Who lived for Erin's weal but died | J |
For Erin's woe | G |
Ah could the men of Ireland read | J |
The names those noteless burial stones | F |
Display to view | D |
Their wounded hearts afresh would bleed | J |
Their tears gush forth again their groans | F |
Resound anew | D |
- | |
The youths whose relics moulder here | G |
Were sprung from Hugh high prince and lord | J |
Of Aileach's lands | F |
Thy noble brothers justly dear | G |
Thy nephew long to be deplored | J |
By Ulster's bands | F |
Theirs were not souls wherein dull time | O |
Could domicile decay or house | F |
Decrepitude | J |
They passed from earth ere manhood's prime | O |
Ere years had power to dim their brows | F |
Or chill their blood | J |
- | |
And who can marvel o'er thy grief | D |
Or who can blame thy flowing tears | F |
Who knows their source | F |
O'Donnell Dunnasava's chief | D |
Cut off amid his vernal years | F |
Lies here a corse | F |
Beside his brother Cathbar whom | P |
Tyrconnell of the Helmets mourns | F |
In deep despair | G |
For valour truth and comely bloom | P |
For all that greatens and adorns | F |
A peerless pair | G |
- | |
Oh had these twain and he the third | J |
The Lord of Mourne O'Niall's son | M |
Their mate in death | Q |
A prince in look in deed and word | J |
Had these three heroes yielded on | M |
The field their breath | Q |
Oh had they fallen on Criffan's plain | M |
There would not be a town or clan | M |
From shore to sea | H |
But would with shrieks bewail the slain | M |
Or chant aloud the exulting rann | M |
Of jubilee | H |
- | |
When high the shout of battle rose | F |
On fields where Freedom's torch still burned | J |
Through Erin's gloom | P |
If one if barely one of those | F |
Were slain all Ulster would have mourned | J |
The hero's doom | P |
If at Athboy where hosts of brave | D |
Ulidian horsemen sank beneath | R |
The shock of spears | F |
Young Hugh O'Neill had found a grave | D |
Long must the North have wept his death | Q |
With heart wrung tears | F |
- | |
If on the day of Ballach myre | G |
The Lord of Mourne had met thus young | S |
A warrior's fate | J |
In vain would such as thou desire | G |
To mourn alone the champion sprung | S |
From Niall the Great | J |
No marvel this for all the dead | J |
Heaped on the field pile over pile | A |
At Mullach brack | T |
Were scarce an eric for his head | J |
If death had stayed his footsteps while | A |
On victory's track | T |
- | |
If on the Day of Hostages | F |
The fruit had from the parent bough | U |
Been rudely torn | M |
In sight of Munster's bands MacNee's | F |
Such blow the blood of Conn I trow | G |
Could ill have borne | M |
If on the day of Ballach boy | V |
Some arm had laid by foul surprise | F |
The chieftain low | G |
Even our victorious shout of joy | V |
Would soon give place to rueful cries | F |
And groans of woe | G |
- | |
If on the day the Saxon host | J |
Were forced to fly a day so great | J |
For Ashanee | M |
The Chief had been untimely lost | J |
Our conquering troops should moderate | J |
Their mirthful glee | H |
There would not lack on Lifford's day | J |
From Galway from the glens of Boyle | A |
From Limerick's towers | F |
A marshalled file a long array | J |
Of mourners to bedew the soil | A |
With tears in showers | F |
- | |
If on the day a sterner fate | J |
Compelled his flight from Athenree | J |
His blood had flowed | J |
What numbers all disconsolate | J |
Would come unasked and share with thee | H |
Affliction's load | J |
If Derry's crimson field had seen | M |
His life blood offered up though 'twere | J |
On Victory's shrine | M |
A thousand cries would swell the keen | M |
A thousand voices of despair | J |
Would echo thine | M |
- | |
Oh had the fierce Dalcassian swarm | W |
That bloody night of Fergus' banks | F |
But slain our Chief | D |
When rose his camp in wild alarm | X |
How would the triumph of his ranks | F |
be dashed with grief | D |
How would the troops of Murbach Mourn | M |
If on the Curlew Mountains' day | J |
Which England rued | J |
Some Saxon hand had left them lorn | M |
By shedding there amid the fray | J |
Their prince's blood | J |
- | |
Red would have been our warriors' eyes | F |
Had Roderick found on Sligo's field | J |
A gory grave | D |
No Northern Chief would soon arise | F |
So sage to guide so strong to shield | J |
So swift to save | D |
Long would Leith Cuinn have wept if Hugh | D |
Had met the death he oft had dealt | J |
Among the foe | G |
But had our Roderick fallen too | D |
All Erin must alas have felt | J |
The deadly blow | G |
- | |
What do I say Ah woe is me | H |
Already we bewail in vain | M |
Their fatal fall | A |
And Erin once the great and free | H |
Now vainly mourns her breakless chain | M |
And iron thrall | A |
Then daughter of O'Donnell dry | J |
Thine overflowing eyes and turn | M |
Thy heart aside | J |
For Adam's race is born to die | J |
And sternly the sepulchral urn | M |
Mocks human pride | J |
- | |
Look not nor sigh for earthly throne | M |
Nor place thy trust in arm of clay | J |
But on thy knees | F |
Uplift thy soul to God Alone | M |
For all things go their destined way | J |
As He decrees | F |
Embrace the faithful crucifix | F |
And seek the path of pain and prayer | J |
Thy Saviour trod | J |
Nor let thy spirit intermix | F |
With earthly hope with worldly care | J |
Its groans to God | J |
- | |
And Thou O mighty Lord Whose Ways | F |
Are far above our feeble minds | F |
To understand | J |
Sustain us in these doleful days | F |
And render light the chain that binds | F |
Our fallen land | J |
James Clarence Mangan
(1)
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