Hew Morrison Collection > Dàn an Deirg; agus, Tiomna Ghuill (Dargo and Gaul)

GAUL. 83
Why, stranger, for thine own self did'st tlioii
For the might of Gaul in his mail of steel Ì [pi'ay
When like ice in the sun's ray it shoile,
510 Transient, though joyous, is the beam of his glory.
Like a ruddy cloud is the hero's life "; [around it.
The hunter beholds, and lo ! the night is shed
" Fair," he cries, "as the rainbow is its form !"
He gazes, and its face is no more seen.
515 Swift as an eagle of the air,
And the whirlwind in gusts beneath her wings,
The beauteous form hath vanished away,
And the dark black mist is in its room.
Though no more alive be Gaul,
520 He shall live in the music of strings ;
Not fleeting as the mist upon the shower
Is the fame of the valiant hero's might.
Prepare, ye sons of the strings.
The bed of Gaul, and of his sunbeam by him,
525 Where the headland may be seen from afar,
And branches on high o'ershadow it.
Beneath the wings of an oak of greenest foliage,
Of fastest growth and most enduring form.
Which will shoot forth its leaves at the breath of the
530 When the heath all around is withered. [shower,
Its leaves from the land's- farthest bounds
Shall be seen by the birds of summer ;
And each bird shall perch as it comes
On the tops of its verdant bough. *■
* Al. — branches of Strumon.