Samuel Ferguson

 p.1
1. "Crom Cruach and his sub-gods twelve,"
   Said Cormac "are but carven treene;
   The axe that made them, haft or helve,
   Had worthier of our worship been.
2. "But He who made the tree to grow,
   And hid in earth the iron-stone,
   And made the man with mind to know
   The axe's use, is God alone."
 p.2
3. Anon to priests of Crom was brought —
   Where, girded in their service dread,
   They minister'd on red Moy Slaught —
   Word of the words King Cormac said.
4. They loosed their curse against the king;
   They cursesd him in his flesh and bones;
   And daily in their mystic ring
   They turn'd the maledictive stones,
5. Till, where at meat the monarch sate,
   Amid the revel and the wine,
   He choked upon the food he ate,
   At Sletty, southward of the Boyne.
6. High vaunted then the priestly throng,
   And far and wide they noised abroad
   With trump and loud liturgic song
   The praise of their avenging God.
7. But ere the voice was wholly spent
   That priest and prince should still obey,
   To awed attendants o'er him bent
   Great Cormac gather'd breath to say, —
8. "Spread not the beds of Brugh for me
   When restless death-bed's use is done:
   But bury me at Rossnaree
   And face me to the rising sun.
9. "For all the kings who lie in Brugh
   Put trust in gods of wood and stone;
   And 'twas at Ross that first I knew
   One, Unseen, who is God alone.
 p.3
10. "His glory lightens from the east;
    message soon shall reach our shore;
    And idol-god, and cursing priest
    Shall plague us from Moy Slaught no more."
11. Dead Cormac on his bier they laid: —
    "He reign'd a king for forty years,
    And shame it were," his captains said,
    "He lay not with his royal peers.
11. "His grandsire, Hundred-Battle, sleeps
    Serene in Brugh: and, all around,
    Dead kings in stone sepulchral keeps
    Protect the sacred burial ground.
12. "What though a dying man should rave
    Of changes o'er the eastern sea?
    In Brugh of Boyne shall be his grave,
    And not in noteless Rossnaree."
13. Then northward forth they bore the bier,
    And down from Sletty side they drew,
    With horsemen and with charioteer,
    To cross the fords of Boyne to Brugh.
14. There came a breath of finer air
    That touch'd the Boyne with ruffling wings,
    It stir'd him in his sedgy lair
    And in his mossy moorland springs.
15. And as the burial train came down
    With dirge and savage dolorous shows,
    Across their pathway, broad and brown
    The deep, full-hearted river rose;
 p.4
16. From bank to bank through all his fords,
    'Neath blackening squalls he swell'd and boil'd;
    And thrice the wondering gentile lords
    Essay'd to cross, and thrice recoil'd.
17. Then forth stepp'd grey-hair'd warriors four:
    They said, "Through angrier floods than these,
    On link'd shields once our king we bore
    From Dread-Spear and the hosts of Deece.
18. "And long as loyal will holds good,
    And limbs respond with helpful thews,
    Nor flood, nor fiend within the flood,
    Shall bar him of his burial dues."
19. With slanted necks they stoop'd to lift;
    They heaved him up to neck and chin;
    And, pair and pair, with footsteps swift,
    Lock'd arm and shoulder, bore him in.
20. 'Twas brave to see them leave the shore;
    to mark the deep'ning surges rise,
    And fall subdued in foam before
    The tension of their striding thighs.
21. 'Twas brave, when now a spear-cast out,
    Breast-high the battling surges ran;
    For weight was great, and limbs were stout,
    And loyal man put trust in man.
22. But ere they reach'd the middle deep,
    Nor steadying weight of clay they bore,
    Nor strain of sinewy limbs could keep
    Their feet beneath the swerving four.
 p.5
23. And now they slide, and now they swim,
    And now, amid the blackening squall,
    Grey locks aloat, with clutching grim,
    They plunge around the floating pall.
24. While, as a youth with practiced spear
    Through justling crowds bears off the ring,
    Boyne from their shoulders caught the bier
    And proudly bore away the king.
25. At morning, on the grassy marge
    Of Rossnaree, the corpse was found,
    And shepherds at their early charge
    Entomb'd it in the peaceful ground.
26. A tranquil spot: a hopeful sound
    Comes from the ever youthful stream,
    And still on daisied mead and mound
    The dawn delays with tenderer beam.
27. Round Cormac Spring renews her buds:
    In march perpetual by his side,
    Down come the earth-fresh April floods,
    And up the sea-fresh salmon glide;
28. And life and time rejoicing run
    From age to age their wonted way;
    But still he waits the risen Sun,
    For still 'tis only' dawning Day.

@incollection{E860001-001,
  author 	 = {Samuel Ferguson},
  title 	 = {The Burial of King Cormac},
  editor 	 = {Alfred Perceval Graves},
  booktitle 	 = {Poems of Sir Samuel Ferguson},
  publisher 	 = {Talbot Press},
  address 	 = {Dublin},
  date 	 = {1918},
  pages 	 = {1–5}
}
 E860001-001.bib