Douglas Hyde.

b. 1861

881    My Grief on the Sea

FROM THE IRISH

MY grief on the sea,
   How the waves of it roll!
For they heave between me
   And the love of my soul!

Abandon’d, forsaken,
   To grief and to care,
Will the sea ever waken
   Relief from despair?

My grief and my trouble!
   Would he and I were,
In the province of Leinster,
   Or County of Clare!

Were I and my darling—
   O heart-bitter wound!—
On board of the ship
   For America bound.

On a green bed of rushes
   All last night I lay,
And I flung it abroad
   With the heat of the day.

And my Love came behind me,
   He came from the South;
His breast to my bosom,
   His mouth to my mouth.