Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Thomas D’Arcy McGee 1825–68

The Irish Wife

McGee-Th

I WOULD not give my Irish wife

For all the dames of the Saxon land;

I would not give my Irish wife

For the Queen of France’s hand;

For she to me is dearer

Than castles strong, or lands, or life:

An outlaw—so I ’m near her

To love till death my Irish wife.

O what would be this home of mine,

A ruin’d, hermit-haunted place,

But for the light that nightly shines

Upon its walls from Kathleen’s face!

What comfort in a mine of gold,

What pleasure in a royal life,

If the heart within lay dead and cold,

If I could not wed my Irish wife?

I knew the law forbade the banns;

I knew my king abhorr’d her race;

Who never bent before their clans

Must bow before their ladies’ grace.

Take all my forfeited domain,

I cannot wage with kinsmen strife:

Take knightly gear and noble name,

And I will keep my Irish wife.

My Irish wife has clear blue eyes,

My heaven by day, my stars by night;

And twin-like truth and fondness lie

Within her swelling bosom white

My Irish wife has golden hair,

Apollo’s harp had once such strings,

Apollo’s self might pause to hear

Her bird-like carol when she sings.

I would not give my Irish wife

For all the dames of the Saxon land;

I would not give my Irish wife

For the Queen of France’s hand;

For she to me is dearer

Than castles strong, or lands, or life:

In death I would be near her,

And rise beside my Irish wife.