Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, KEENE; OR, LAMENT OF AN IRISH MOTHER OVER HER SON, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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KEENE; OR, LAMENT OF AN IRISH MOTHER OVER HER SON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on
Last Line: Silent and dark!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Ireland; Lament; Mothers & Sons; Irish


DARKLY the cloud of night comes rolling on;
Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son!
Silent and dark!

There is blood upon the threshold
Whence thy step went forth at morn
Like a dancer's in its fleetness,
O my bright first-born!

At the glad sound of that footstep
My heart within me smiled; --
Thou wert brought me back all silent
On thy bier, my child!

Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on;
Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son
Silent and dark!

I thought to see thy children
Laugh on me with thine eyes;
But my sorrow's voice is lonely
Where my life's flower lies.

I shall go to sit beside thee,
Thy kindred's graves among;
I shall hear the tall grass whisper --
I shall not hear it long.

Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on;
Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son!
Silent and dark!

And I, too, shall find slumber
With my lost one in the earth; --
Let none light up the ashes
Again on our hearth!

Let the roof go down! -- let silence
On the home for ever fall,
Where my boy lay cold, and heard not
His lone mother's call!
Darkly the cloud of night comes rolling on;
Darker is thy repose, my fair-haired son!
Silent and dark!





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