In the extremity of their suffering, frozen in Erris sea, the brothers were inconsolable. Fionnuala asked them to believe in the true God, and they were relieved, and suffered no more. At the end of their final term, they arose and went very lightly and airily towards the city of their father. "And thus they found the place: void, desolate, with naught but the bare green paths and forests of nettles, without house, without fire, without tribes. Then the Four drew close together, and thrice they raised on high the cry of wailing; then Fionnuala spoke this lay": Strange is all this place to me, No house, no home, no gladness; As 'tis thus, this place to see-- Alas, my heart, what sadness! No bound, no sound, no ember, No group where princes gather; Not thus do we remember Its old days with our father. No horn, no goblet dancing, No halls of light, each morrow: No youth, no proud steed prancing-- All signs portend us sorrow! All the void that here I see-- Alas, my pain grows stronger! Makes it, this night, clear to me Its loved lord lives no longer. City, where of old we knew All arts of joy exerted, What a fate of woe and rue-- Thou art, this night, deserted! Dark our doom and tragical-- Condemned the waves to wander, Ne'er such ill fate magical Did mortal yet fall under. Now, the city populous Gives weeds and woods its favour: No man lives who'd welcome us To this, our homestead, ever. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAMENT OF THE MASTER ERSKINE by ALEXANDER SCOTT (1520-1590) AN EARNEST SUIT [TO HIS UNKIND MISTRESS NOT TO FORESAKE HIM] by THOMAS WYATT UPON MY FATHERS SUDDEN & DANGEROUS SICKNESS by JOSEPH BEAUMONT MY FLOWERS by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER COMPENSATION by MARION L. BERTRAND THE BARN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE TALENTS by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE TAKE YOUR CHOICE: OR HERE'S GRANTLAND RICE'S METHOD by BERTON BRALEY |