ON CARAGH LAKE

On Caragh lake the evening light

Is violet and amethyst,

And the dark shadows of the pines

In silence keep their twilight tryst.

And high beyond the purple groves,

The sweeping moors, the climbing fells,

The rugged Kerry mountains stand

Like grim eternal sentinels.

In dying whispers on the shore

The ripples lap, the ripples break,

And there is peace beyond all words

As night descends on Caragh lake!

In unexpected grooves of flight

A blundering bat swoops swiftly by;

From out a coppice drifts a bird's

Last plaintive melody.

The lake is like a mirror dim

With no disturbing breath to mar,

While o'er a lonely fell there burns

One white vespernal star.