'T is you shall reign, shall reign alone, My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen!

'T is you shall have the golden throne, 'T is you shall reign, and reign alone, My Dark Rosaleen!

Over dews, over sands,

Will I fly for your weal: Your holy delicate white hands Shall girdle me with steel.

At home, in your emerald bowers,

From morning's dawn till e'en,

You'll pray for me, my flower of flowers, My Dark Rosaleen!

My fond Rosaleen!

48

You'll think of me through daylight hours,
My virgin flower, my flower of flowers,
My Dark Rosaleen!

I could scale the blue air,

I could plough the high hills,
O, I could kneel all night in prayer,
To heal your many ills!

And one beamy smile from you

Would float like light between My toils and me, my own, my true, My Dark Rosaleen!

My fond Rosaleen!

Would give me life and soul anew,

A second life, a soul anew,

My Dark Rosaleen!

60

72

The Star-Spangled Banner

O, the Erne shall run red,

With redundance of blood,

The earth shall rock beneath our tread,
And flames wrap hill and wood,
And gun-peal and slogan-cry

Wake many a glen serene,

Ere you shall fade, ere you shall die,

My Dark Rosaleen!

My own Rosaleen!

The Judgement Hour must first be nigh,
Ere you can fade, ere you can die,

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My Dark Rosaleen!

James Clarence Mangan.

1845?

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

O SAY, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in

air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was

still there;

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the

brave?

8

On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence

reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering

steep,

As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first

beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream; 'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it

wave

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

16

And where are the foes who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps'
pollution;

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the

grave;

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth

wave

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the

brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's

desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heavenrescued land

24

The American Flag

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved

us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto,
In God is our trust ";

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall

wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the

brave.

1813.

32

Francis Scott Key.

THE AMERICAN FLAG

WHEN Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.

Majestic monarch of the cloud,

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form,
To hear the tempest trumpings loud
And see the lightning lances driven,

When strive the warriors of the storm,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven,
Child of the sun! to thee 't is given
To guard the banner of the free,

12

To hover in the sulphur smoke,
To ward away the battle stroke,
And bid its blendings shine afar,
Like rainbows on the cloud of war,
The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high,
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on.
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,
Each soldier eye shall brightly turn
To where the sky-born glories burn;
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabres rise and fall

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall shrink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.

25

43

Flag of the seas! on ocean wave

Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave;
When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,