WHY sits the gentle maiden there, While surfing billows splash around? Why doth she southwards wildly stare, And sing, with such a fearful sound, -- "The Wild Geese fly where others walk; The Wild Geese do what others talk; The way is long from France, you know, -- He'll come at last when south winds blow." O, softly was the maiden nurst In Castle Connell's lordly bowers, Where Skellig's billows boil and burst, And, far above, Dunkerron towers: And she was noble as the hill, -- Yet battle-flags are nobler still; And she was graceful as the wave, Yet who would live a tranquil slave? And, so, her lover went to France, To serve the foe of Ireland's foe; Yet deep he swore, "Whatever chance, I'll come some day when south winds blow." And prouder hopes he told beside, How she should be a prince's bride, How Louis would the Wild Geese send, And Ireland's weary woes should end. But tyrants quenched her father's hearth, And wrong and absence warped her mind; The gentle maid, of gentle birth, Is moaning madly to the wind, -- "He said he'd come, whate'er betide; He said I'd be a happy bride: O, long the way and hard the foe, -- He'll come when south -- when south winds blow!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE QUESTION by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON EPIGRAMS: BOOK I, 1 by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS STONEWALL JACKSON; MORTALLY WOUNDED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE by HERMAN MELVILLE THE SHEPHERDESS by ALICE MEYNELL SONNET: 97 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE NEW PRINCE, NEW POMP by ROBERT SOUTHWELL |