by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931)
Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill
Language: English
Oh! black breaks the morrow in tempest and gloom, When we bear to our sorrow O'Neill to the tomb. Whilst with wailing and weeping the long, long train Comes woefully weeping o'er Uladh's dark plain. 'Twas not reaving their cattle, you fell, Owen Roe, Or in red, raging battle, your face to the foe. But the black snake of treason they sent, O'Neill, To pierce you with poison since you scoffed at their steel. Oh! leader God-gifted, oh! arm stern of stroke, That well-nigh had lifted from our shoulders the yoke, Your death-bell is ringing our doom, our doom, For with you we are bringing our hopes to the tomb !
Authorship:
- by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill", published [1882?] [voice and piano], from the collection Songs of Old Ireland. A Collection of Fifty Irish Melodies Unknown in England, no. 12, arrangement ; London, Boosey & Co. ; dedicated to Johannes Brahms, August 1882 [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson
This text was added to the website: 2015-04-08
Line count: 12
Word count: 111