Samuel Ferguson

Aideen's Grave

1. They heaved the stone; they heap'd the cairn:
   Said Ossian "In a queenly grave
   We leave her, 'mong her fields of fern
   Between the cliff and wave.
2. "The cliff behind stands clear and bare,
   And bare, above, the heathery steep
   Scales the clear heaven's expanse, to where
   The Danaan Druids sleep.
3. "And all the sands that, left and right,
   The grassy isthmus-ridge confine,
   in yellow bars le bared and bright
   Among the sparkling brine.
 p.7
4. "A clear pure air pervades the scene,
   In loneliness and awe secure;
   Meet spot to sepulchre a Queen
   Who in her life was pure.
5. "Here, far from camp and chase removed,
   Apart in Nature's quiet room,
   The music that alive she loved
   Shall cheer her in the tomb.
6. "The humming of the noontide bees,
   The lark's loud carol all day long,
   And, borne on evening's salted breeze,
   The clanking sea bird's song
7. "Shall round her airy chamber float,
   And with the whispering winds and steams
   Attune to Nature's tenderest note
   The tenor of her dreams.
8. "And oft, at tranquil eve's decline
   When full tides lip the Old Green Plain,
   The lowing of Moynalty's kine
   Shall round her breathe again,
9. "In sweet remembrance of the days
   When, duteous, in the lowly vale
   Unconscious of my Oscar's gale,
   She fill'd the fragrant pail,
10. "And, duteous, from the running brook
    Drew water for the bath; nor deem'd
    A king did on her labour look,
    And she a fairy seem'd.
 p.8
11. "But when the wintry frosts begin,
    And in their long-drawn, lofty flight,
    The wild geese with their airy din
    Distend the ear of night,
12. "And whne the fierce De Danaan ghosts
    At midnight from their peak come down,
    When all around the enchanted coasts
    Despairing strangers drown;
13. "When, mingling with the wreckful wail,
    From low Clontarf's wave-trampled floor
    Comes booming up the burthen'd gale
    The angry Sand-Bull's roar;
14. "Or, angrier than the sea, the shout
    Of Erin's hosts in wrath combined,
    When Terror heads Oppression's rout,
    And Freedom cheers behind: —
15. "Then o'er our lady's placid dream,
    Where safe from storms she sleeps, may steal
    Such jo as will not misbeseem
    A Queen of men to feel:
16. "Such thrill of free, defiant pride,
    As rapt her in her battle car
    At Gavra, when by Oscar's side
    She rode the ridge of war,
17. "Exulting, down the shouting troops,
    And through the thick confronting kings,
    With hands on all their javelin loops
    And shafts on all their strings;
 p.9
18. "E'er closed the inseparable crowds,
    No more to part for me, and show,
    As bursts the sun through scattering clouds,
    My Oscar issuing so.
19. "No more, dispelling battle's gloom
    Shall son for me from fight return;
    The great green rath's ten-acred tomb
    Lies heavy on his urn.
20. "A cup of bodkin-pencill'd clay
    Holds Oscar; mighty heart and limb
    One handful now of ashes grey:
    And she has died for him.
21. "And here, hard by her natal bower
    On lone Ben Edar's side, we strive
    With lifted rock and sign of power
    To keep her name alive.
22. "That while, from circling year to year,
    Her Ogham-letter'd stone is seen,
    The Gael shall say, 'Our Fenians here
    Entomb's their loved Aideen.'
23. "The Ogham from her pillar stone
    In tract of time will wear away;
    Her name at last be only know
    In Ossian's echo'd lay.
24. "The long forgotten lay I sing
    May only ages hence revive,
    (As eagle with a wounded wing
    To soar again might strive,)
 p.10
25. "Imperfect, in an alien speech,
    When, wandering here, some child of chance
    Through pangs of keen delight shall reach
    The gift of utterance, —
26. "To speak the air, the sky to speak,
    The freshness of the hill to tell,
    Who, roaming bare Ben Edar's peak
    And Aideen's briary dell,
27. "And gazing on the Cromlech vast,
    And on the mountain and the sea,
    Shall catch communion with the past
    And mix himself with me.
28. "Child of the Future's doubtful night,
    Wate'er your speech, whoe'r your sires,
    Sing while you may with frank delight
    The song your house inspires.
29. "Sing while you may, nor grieve to know
    The song you sing shall also die;
    Atharna's lay has perish'd so,
    Though once it thrill'd this sky.
30. "Above us, from his rocky chair,
    There, where Ben Edar's landward crest
    O'er eastern Bregia bends, to where
    Dun Almon crowns the west:
31. "And all that felt the fretted air
    Throughout the song-distemper'd clime,
    Did droop, till suppliant Leinster's prayer
    Appeased the vengeful rhyme.
 p.11
32. "Ah me, or e'er the hour arrive
    Shall bid my long-forgotten tones,
    Unknown One, on your lips revive,
    Here, by these moss-grown stones,
33. "What change shall o'er the scene have cross'd;
    What conquering lords anew have come;
    What lore-arm'd, mightier Druid host
    From Gaul or distant Rome!
34. "What arts of death, what ways of life,
    What creeds unknown to bard or seer,
    Shall round your careless steps be rife,
    Who pause and ponder here;
35. "And, haply, where yon curlew calls
    Athwart the marsh, 'mid groves and bowers
    See rise some mighty chieftain's halls
    With unimagined towers:
36. "And baying hounds, and coursers bright,
    And burnish'd cars of dazzling sheen,
    With courtly train of dame and knight,
    Where now the fern is green.
37. "Or, by yon prostrate altar-stone
    May kneel, perchance, and, free from blame,
    Hear holy men with rites unknown
    New names of God proclaim.
38. "Let change as may the Name of Awe,
    Let rite surcease and altar fall,
    The same One God remains, a law
    For ever and for all.
 p.12
39. "Let change as may the face of earth,
    Let alter all the social frame,
    For mortal men the ways of birth
    And death are still the same.
40. "And still, as life and time wear on,
    The children of the waning days,
    (Though strength be from their shoulders gone
    To lift the loads we raise,)
41. "Shall weep to do the burial rites
    Of lost ones loved; and fondly found,
    In shadow of the gathering nights,
    The monumental mound.
42. "Farewell! The strength of men is worn;
    The night approaches dark and chill:
    Sleep, till perchance an endless morn
    Descend the glittering hill."
43. Of Oscar and Aideen bereft,
    So Ossian sang. The Fenians sped
    Three mighty shouts to heaven; and left
    Ben Edar to the dead.

@incollection{E860001-002,
  author 	 = {Samuel Ferguson},
  title 	 = {Aideen's Grave},
  editor 	 = {Alfred Perceval Graves},
  booktitle 	 = {Poems of Sir Samuel Ferguson},
  publisher 	 = {Talbot Press},
  address 	 = {Dublin},
  date 	 = {1918},
  pages 	 = {6–12}
}
 E860001-002.bib