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INFELIX FELIX, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Why is his name unsung, o minstrel host?




Why is his name unsung, O minstrel host?
Why do ye pass his memory like a ghost?
Why is no rose, no laurel, on his grave?
Was he not constant, vigilant and brave?
Why, when that hero-age ye deify.
Why do ye pass Infelix Felix by?


He rose the first-he looms the morning-star
Of the long, glorious, unsuccessful war.
England abhors him ! Has she not abhorr'd
All who for Ireland ventured life or word?
What memory wou'd she not have cast away
That Ireland hugs in her heart's heart to-day?


He rose in wrath to free his fetter'd land.
' There's blood-there's Saxon blood-upon his hand.'
Ay, so they say ! Three thousand, less or more.
He sent untimely to the Stygian shore.
They were the keepers of the prison-gate
He slew them his whole race to liberate


O clear-eyed poets ! ye who can descry
Through vulgar heaps of dead where heroes lie
Ye, to whose glance the primal mist is clear -
Behold, there lies a trampled noble here !
Shall we not leave a mark? shall we not do
Justice to one so hated and so true?


If ev'n his hand and hilt were so distain'd
If he was guilty, as he has been blamed-
His death redeem'd his life. He chose to die
Rather than get his freedom with a lie.
Plant o'er his gallant heart a laurel-tree.
So may his head within the shadow be.


I mourn for thee, O hero of the North
God judge thee gentler than we do on earth I
I mourn for thee, and for our land, because
She dare not own thee martyr in our cause;
But they, our poets, they who justify
They will not let thy memory rot or die !






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