TO THE BAY OF DUBLIN.

My native Bay, for many a year

I've lov'd thee with a trembling fear,

Lest thou, though dear and very dear,

And beauteous as a vision,

Shouldst have some rival far away,

Some matchless wonder of a bay,

Whose sparkling waters ever play

‘ Neath azure skies elysian.

‘ Tis Love, methought, blind Love that pours

The rippling magic round these shores,

For whatsoever Love adores

Becomes what Love desireth:

‘ Tis ignorance of aught beside

That throws enchantment o'er the tide,

And makes my heart respond with pride

To what mine eye admireth,

And thus, unto our mutual loss,

Whene'er I paced the sloping moss

Of green Killiney, or across

The intervening waters,

Up Howth's brown sides my feet would wend,

To see thy sinuous bosom bend,

Or view thine outstretch'd arms extend

To clasp thine islet daughters;

Then would this spectre of my fear

Beside me stand — How calm and clear

Slept underneath, the green waves, near

The tide-worn rocks’ recesses;

Or when they woke, and leapt from land,

Like startled sea-nymphs, hand-in-hand,

Seeking the southern silver strand

With floating emerald tresses:

It lay o'er all, a moral mist,

Even on the hills, when evening kissed

The granite peaks to amethyst,

I felt its fatal shadow:

It darkened o'er the brightest rills,

It lowered upon the sunniest hills,

And hid the wing `ed song that fills

The moorland and the meadow.

But now that I have been to view

All even Nature's self can do,

And from Gaeta's arch of blue

Borne many a fond memento;

And from each fair and famous scene,

Where Beauty is, and Power hath been,

Along the golden shores between

Misenum and Sorrento:

I can look proudly in thy face,

Fair daughter of a hardier race,

And feel thy winning well-known grace,

Without my old misgiving;

And as I kneel upon thy strand,

And kiss thy once unvalued hand,

Proclaim earth holds no lovelier land,

Where life is worth the living.