Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VOICES FROM THE OLD WORLD, by SARA J. CLARKE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VOICES FROM THE OLD WORLD, by                    
First Line: A voice from out the highlands
Last Line: When perish erin's daughters!
Subject(s): Scotland


A VOICE from out the Highlands,
Old Scotia's mountain homes,
From wild burn-side and darksome glen,
And towering steep it comes!
Is it the shout of huntsmen bold,
Who chase the antler'd stag,
Who sound the horn, and cheer the hounds,
And leap from crag to crag?
Is it the call of rising clans,
The cry of gathering men?
Pours freedom's rocky fortress forth
Its Gaelic hordes again?
Throng round the Scottish chieftains
Such hosts as long ago
In mountain storms of valour
Swept down upon the foe?
When hoarse and deep like thunder
Their shouts of vengeful wrath,
And the lightning of drawn claymores
Flash'd out upon their path?

Far other are the fearful sounds
Borne o'er the wintry wave,
The cry of mortal agony,
The death-groans of the brave!
For once a foe invincible
The kilted Gael hath found;
At length one field beholds him yield --
Starvation's battle-ground!
Thus, thus came forth the mountaineers,
Pale, gaunt, and ghostly bands,
Who westward turn their frenzied eyes,
And stretch their shrivell'd hands;
And like the shriek of madness, comes
Their wild beseeching cry --
"Bread, bread! we faint, we waste, we starve,
Bread, bread! oh, God, we die!"

And shall they perish thus, whose sires,
Stout warrior-men and stern,
With Wallace battled side by side,
And bled at Bannockburn?
Where freedom's new world realms expand,
Where western sunsets glow,
A nation with one mighty voice
Gives back the answer, -- "No!"
'T is ours, 't is ours, the godlike power
To bid doomed thousands live;
Then let us on the water cast
The bread of our reprieve;
Give, give! when Scotia's proud sons beg,
Oh, heaven, who would not give!

And forms of womanhood are there,
The matron and the maid,
Strange, haggard, famine-wasted shapes,
In tatter'd garbs array'd,
And these are they whose beauties rare
Are famed in song and story,
And these are they whose mothers' names
Are link'd with Scotland's glory!
Ah, they too gaze with dim sad eyes
Out o'er the western main,
While there are beating woman hearts
They shall not gaze in vain,
We rest not till we minister
To their despairing need,
Give, give! oh, heaven, who would not give
When Scotia's daughters plead?

A voice from Erin's storied isle
Comes sweeping o'er the main;
Ha! calls she on her sons to strike
For freedom once again?
Or rises from her heart of fire
The pealing voice of song,
Or rolls the tide of eloquence
The burden'd air along?
Or ringeth out some lay of love
By blue-eyed maidens sung,
Or sweeter, dearer music yet,
The laughter of the young?

Far other is that fearful voice,
A sound of woe and dread,
'T is Erin mourning for her sons,
The dying and the dead!
They perish in the open fields,
They fall beside the way,
Or lie within their hovel-homes,
Their bed, the damp cold clay,
And watch the sluggish tide of life
Ebb slowly day by day!
They sink as sinks the mariner
When wreck'd upon the wave,
"Unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown,"
No winding-sheet, no grave!

To us her cry; be our reply
Bread-laden argosies;
Let love's divine armada meet
Her fearful enemies;
Give, give, and feel the smile of God
Upon thy spirit lie;
Draw back, and let thy poor soul hear
Its angel's parting sigh.
Give, give! oh, heaven, who would not give.
When Erin's brave sons die?

Oh! sisters, there are famishing,
The old with silver hair;
And dead unburied babes are left
To waste upon the air!
And mothers wan and fever-worn,
Beside their hearths are sinking,
And maiden forms, while yet in life,
To skeletons are shrinking!

Ho! freight the good ship to the wale
Pile high the golden grain!
A nation's life-boat spreads her sail,
God speed her o'er the main!
His peace shall calm the stormy skies,
And rest upon the waters;
Give, give! oh heaven, who would not give.
When perish Erin's daughters!





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