Thomas Osborne Davis
Edited by T. W. Rolleston
Whole text
- p.322
- BRIGHT red is the sun on the waves of Lough Sheelin,
A cool, gentle breeze from the mountain is stealing,
While fair round its islets the small ripples play,
But fairer than all is the Flower of Finae. - Her hair is like night, and her eyes like grey morning,
She trips on the heather as if its touch scorning,
Yet her heart and her lips are as mild as May day,
Sweet Eily MacMahon, the Flower of Finae. - But who down the hill-side than red deer runs fleeter?
And who on the lake-side is hastening to greet her?
Who but Fergus O'Farrell, the fiery and gay,
The darling and pride of the Flower of Finae? p.323 - One kiss and one clasp, and one wild look of gladness:
Ah! why do they change on a sudden to sadness?—
He has told his hard fortune, no more he can stay,
He must leave his poor Eily to pine at Finae. - For Fergus O'Farrell was true to his sire-land,
And the dark hand of tyranny drove him from Ireland;
He joins the Brigade, in the wars far away,
But he vows he'll come back to the Flower of Finae. - He fought at Cremona— she hears of his story;
He fought at Cassano— she's proud of his glory.
Yet sadly she sings Siúbhail a rúin 1 all the day,
“Oh! come, come, my darling, come home to Finae.” - Eight long years have passed, till she's nigh broken-hearted,
Her reel, and her rock, and her flax she has parted;
She sails with the “Wild Geese” to Flanders away,
And leaves her sad parents alone in Finae. - Lord Clare on the field of Ramillies is charging—
Before him, the Sacsanach squadrons enlarging—
Behind him the Cravats their sections display—
Beside him rides Fergus and shouts for Finae. p.324 - On the slopes of La Judoigne the Frenchmen are flying
Lord Clare and his squadrons the foe still defying,
Outnumbered, and wounded, retreat in array;
And bleeding rides Fergus and thinks of Finae. - In the cloisters of Ypres a banner is swaying,
And by it a pale, weeping maiden is praying;
That flag's the sole trophy of Ramillies' fray;
This nun is poor Eily, the Flower of Finae.
The Flower of Finae
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Title statement
Title (uniform): The Flower of Finae
Author: Thomas Osborne Davis
Editor: T. W. Rolleston
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Electronic edition compiled and proof corrections by: Beatrix Färber and Juliette Maffet
Edition statement
1. First draft, revised and corrected.
Extent: 948 words
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Publisher: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College Cork
Address: College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt
Date: 2012
Distributor: CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
CELT document ID: E850004-006
Availability: Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.
Source description
Source
- First published in the Nation on 25 May 1844.
Other writings by Thomas Davis
- Thomas Davis, Essays Literary and Historical, ed. by D. J. O'Donoghue, Dundalk 1914.
- 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.]
- 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.]
- Thomas Osborne Davis, Literary and historical essays 1846. Reprinted 1998, Washington, DC: Woodstock Books.
- 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'.]
- 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.]
- 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.
Davis, Thomas Osborne (1910). ‘The Flower of Finae’. In: Thomas Davis: Selections from his prose and poetry. Ed. by T. W. Rolleston. Dublin and London: The Talbot Press, pp. 322–324.
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@incollection{E850004-006, author = {Thomas Osborne Davis}, title = {The Flower of Finae}, editor = {T. W. Rolleston}, booktitle = {Thomas Davis: Selections from his prose and poetry}, publisher = {The Talbot Press}, address = {Dublin and London}, date = {1910}, pages = {322–324} }
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Project description: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
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Correction: Text has been proof-read twice and parsed.
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Profile description
Creation: by Thomas Davis
Date: 1840s
Language usage
- The text is in English. (en)
- Three words are in Irish. (ga)
Keywords: literary; poetry; 19c
Revision description
(Most recent first)
- 2012-01-31: File proofed (2), header created; file parsed; SGML and HTML files created. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2012-01-16: File proofed (1); structural and content markup applied. (ed. Juliette Maffet)
- 1996: Text captured by scanning. (ed. Audrey Murphy)