A SONG OF ERIN

By Norah Mary Holland

Far to westward in the sunset tall and bare her cliffs arise,

Mother Erin, with the tender love and laughter in her eyes,

Looking out across the waters, dreaming of her argosies.

Argosies that sail forever, laden down with hopes and fears,

Ships of dream, returning never, though she waits throughout the years,

Waits, with eyes wherein the laughter grows more sorrowful than tears.

One by one her children leave her — stalwart sons and daughters fair,

Straining eyes grown dim with anguish as her hilltops melt in air;

Bending from her cliffs she watches, drinking deep of their despair.