While I remain on this theme …. And please, I don’t want Jasper and Cloakie at each other’s throats, metaphorically, determined to separately identify .. ‘her faithless sons (who) betrayed her’ !!
LET
Let
Ere her faithless sons betrayed her;
When Malachi wore the collar of gold
Which he won from her proud invader;
When her kings with standards of green unfurled
Led the Red Branch Knights to danger –
Ere the emerald gem of the western world
Was set in the crown of a stranger.
On Lough Neagh’s bank as the fisherman strays,
When the clear cold eve’s declining,
He sees the round towers of other days
In the wave beneath him shining;
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime
Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;
Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time
For the long-faded glories they cover.