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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A SONG OF FREEDOM by ALICE MILLIGAN

First Line: IN CAVAN OF LITTLE LAKES
Last Line: THERE IS NO FETTER FOR THE SEA.
Subject(s): FREEDOM; NATIONALISM - IRELAND; LIBERTY;

In Cavan of little lakes,
As I was walking with the wind,
And no one seen beside me there,
There came a song into my mind;
It came as if the whispered voice
Of one, but none of human kind,
Who walked with me in Cayan then,
And he invisible as wind.

On Urris of Inish-Owen,
As I went up the mountain side,
The brook that came leaping down
Cried to me--for joy it cried;
And when from off the summit far
I looked o'er land and water wide,
I was more joyous than the brook
That met me on the mountain side.

To Ara of Connacht's isles,
As I went sailing o'er the sea,
The wind's word, the brook's word,
The wave's word, was plain to me--
As we are, though she is not,
As we are, shall Banba be--
There is no king can rule the wind,
There is no fetter for the sea.



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