61. The Grave of Rury

CLEAR as air, the western waters

evermore their sweet, unchanging song

Murmur in their stony channels

round O’Conor’s sepulchre in Cong.

Crownless, hopeless, here he lingered;

year on year went by him like a dream,

While the far-off roar of conquest

murmured faintly like the singing stream.

Here he died, and here they tombed him

men of Fechin, chanting round his grave.

Did they know, ah! did they know it,

what they buried by the babbling wave?

Now above the sleep of Rury

holy things and great have passed away;

Stone by stone the stately Abbey

falls and fades in passionless decay.

Darkly grows the quiet ivy,

pale the broken arches glimmer through;

Dark upon the cloister-garden

dreams the shadow of the ancient yew.

Through the roofless aisles the verdure

flows, the meadow-sweet and fox-glove bloom.

Earth, the mother and consoler,

winds soft arms about the lonely tomb.

Peace and holy gloom possess him,

last of Gaelic monarchs of the Gael,

Slumbering by the young, eternal

river-voices of the western vale.