51 5 Z ti:: '■-/' ' r I T\ IKCLANU UNrKCLl rOEMS OF 192 / by SIR WILLIAM WATSON IRELAND UNFREED IRELAND UNFREED POEMS AND VERSES WRITTEN IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1921 BY SIR WILLIAM WATSON & NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD, LIMITED MCMXXI ■ . 1 . ■ >»»»»> » 1 . ■ 1 • • 3 » 1 • Copyright, 1921, By JOHN LANE COMPANY Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A. . • * * < _ i t * ... * , . * * 1 1 < I ' * « * • l i i ■ 1 . Bebtcatton To you, my little daughters, happy in being •5 CM CD CM * The daughters also of an Irish mother, And happiest when no other Than the sweet Irish air Is on your cheeks ; to you that blithely share The gleesome hours, and catch their bliss a-fleeing, I, with grave pen inscribe this little book; Desiring — nay, foreseeing — That you shall live to look On Ireland's Freeing. W. W. 402G65 The larger part of the contents of these pages has not been printed before, but several of the sonnets and other poems and verses forming the lesser part have been published in the London Daily News, and one or two in the London Times and the Daily Mail. To the editors of these newspapers the author tenders his thanks for liberty to reclaim his contributions, some of which now reappear with altered titles, and three with material revision. CONTENTS PAGE DEDICATION V THE BOUND ONE II MORE THAN TROPHIES 14 REPRISAL BY FIRE 15 SONNET — TO THE PRIME MINISTER . . 1J SONNET — TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD . 19 WASTED BLANDISHMENTS . . . . 21 SONNET — TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRE- LAND 2 3 COMPLETE DELIVERANCE .... 25 A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY .... 26 SONNET TO ERIN ONCE MORE . . 28 SONNET — AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION 30 TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN ... 32 SONNET — TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET AGAIN 34 vii Vlll CONTENTS the stranger-minstrel . sonnet — secret communion to an irish patriot to an oppressor the two puissances the vision . England's choice PAGE 36 38 40 41 42 44 45 IRELAND UNFREED THE BOUND ONE Thou whom not joys but perils and pangs allure: The white foam's sister, as the white foam pure: The dark storm's daughter, guarding long and late That far-descended heirloom, ancient hate: I cannot say — "In all things that con- cerned Thee and thy hopes I never swerved or turned, Or held with stumbling mind a waver- ing creed." 12 THE BOUND ONE But this at least I can declare indeed: Through days with tempest packed, with thunder piled, My dream was of an Ireland Recon- ciled By utter undoing of wrongs all Earth saw done, And by full freedom to fair friend- ship won : Not mocked and cheated, conquering some vain goal That could but foil the hunger of the soul, And left as now,, with the inmost ills unchanged, The Spouse whom wedlock hath the more estranged, THE BOUND ONE 1 3 Whom bonds do the more direly rend apart ; No — but from long, long sickness of the heart Delivered : healed witn a more sovereign balm Than the old deep hurts have known: and in blest calm — An Ireland willing to be loved at last — Risen from the agonies of the love- less Past, Risen from a hundred shatterings, great and new. O that 'twere mine to see that dream come true ! MORE THAN TROPHIES Ev'n were thy freeing complete, The marks thy fetters made Could not for ever in a moment fade,, O Erin, from thy feet! Why should they? 'Twere more meet That they remained, to be in times afar Held sacred, when perhaps mere glory- ing Power, And all its idols of an age or hour, Unreverenced are. 14 REPRISAL BY FIRE And this, is this the justice that we claim To have kept untarnished in all realms we sway — This revel of vengeance, blotting the pure day — These barbarous deeds, that well might make our name A byword and a hissing and a shame Throughout the Earth? This is the doom-paved way By which great Empires in august array March to their thunderous deaths 'mid rage and flame. 15 1 6 REPRISAL BY FIRE These are the acts that in an hour unblest Cancel a thousand deeds benignly done, Fling far away the good gains Wisdom won, And striking home to Man's most in- ward breast Make Domination seem a maniac jest Heard 'mid the flare of a distempered sun. TO THE PRIME MINISTER (The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) When France was flame, and Belgium ashes, and while O'er us the flying Death continually Hung near, you rose to greatness. You were he Who in the teeth of the enemy's might and guile Did set a-whirring throughout all this isle The Wheels of the Machine of Victory. And when shall we forget it? When the Sea 17 l8 TO THE PRIME MINISTER Forgets his thunder, or the Morn her smile. But O sad change! Chiefly, to-day, in this Your mastery towers — that you forbear to stir A finger, while your minions fierce and fell Shatter doomed Ireland's homes, and build in her A suburb of the great metropolis Of evil and woe, whose name on earth is Hell. TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD No thin, pale fame,, no brief and poor renown, Were thy just due. Of thee shall wise Time say : "Chartered for havoc, 'neath his rule, were they Whose chastisement of guilt was to burn down The house of innocence, in fear-crazed town And trembling hamlet. While he had his way, Converts untold did this man make each day 10 20 TO SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD To savage hate of Law and King and Crown." Great propagandist of the rebel creed! Proselytiser without living peer! If thou stand last — if thou but per- severe — 'Twill be thy glory to complete indeed Valera's work, that doth ev'n now so need Thy mellow art's last touches, large and clear ! WASTED BLANDISHMENTS Yes, we do justice — here and there; And patch and peddle and repair; And even sometimes wonder still Whether our Rule be good or ill; And marvel much, when Ireland's Soul Defies a Government's control! We spread before her that vain bait, Co-partnership in our proud fate; But waywardly and wildly wise, She turns thereon undazzled eyes. For she accounts of far more worth Each foot of that green piece of earth 21 22 WASTED BLANDISHMENTS Yonder amid the Atlantic spray, Where 'tis her children's dream to say "This is indeed our Isle — our ozvn! This is our Land — and ours alone/' TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRELAND Friend with frank tongue, who o'er the unflattering sea Dost likewise flatter not: who view'st the maze And tangle of things through no vague- shimmering haze : Pledge thou thy word, that if, long urged by thee, We loose her bonds and set the Thralled One free, That Morn-fair deed, crowned with Man's golden praise, Shall not for us, in thy consenting gaze, 23 24 TO AMERICA CONCERNING IRELAND Prove the bright Mother of dark calamity ! Then shall we know that some who else might mar The Dayspring, and drag Midnight from its grave — Some whose imperial dreams are loth to die — Will listen first beside the Western Wave: Will hear thy thundered interdict afar, And flee in terror lest they hear it nigh. COMPLETE DELIVERANCE "A leap in the Dark," say the cham- pions of Night. O surely a leap from the Dark, into Light! 25 A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY Thee, wounded Ireland, thee I gratu- late ; First, on thy wounds; next, on that very fate Whose malice hath yet spared thee one worse woe Than even thou hast tasted. For although Grievous is thraldom, in a world be- thronged With the proud wrongers and the prostrate wronged, Far deeper is the unconscious misery 26 A GLORIOUS IMMUNITY 27 Of them that shackle those who would be free ! And though the thralled seem hapless, theirs who thrall Is the most dark, lost, heavenless state of all. TO ERIN ONCE MORE Upon that Day when thou among thy peers Shalt take the place that is by right thine own, Judge not of England with a mind too prone To harsh, hard thoughts! Though oft her palsying fears Did freeze up noble purpose, hers were tears For the world's heartache — hers no breast of stone. She wronged thee much: but speak not blame alone, 28 TO ERIN ONCE MORE 20, When forth thou step'st into the happier years. And when, disburdened of a cumber- ing weight, Thou from the transitory and fugitive— From thy dead yesterdays— art loosed, to live At peace with God and Man and Time and Fate, Be thine the greatness of the more than great, Whose glory it is, divinely to forgive. AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION Was it all folly — vonder, hour by hour, To choose, not peace,, but strife, and thereto dare The lion couched in his unnative lair, The world- feared lion, mighty to devour ? O that some folly as splendid were a flower Not, on all shores but those, so won- drous rare! Common as weed in Ireland every- where 30 AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION 3 1 That splendid folly blooms, and hath the power To make a mere slight boy not only face Death with no tremblings, with no coward alarms, But like a lover woo it to his arms, Clasp with a joyous and a rapt embrace Death's beauty, Death's dear sweet- ness, Death's pure grace, And count all else as nought beside Death's charms. TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN To all who heed, to all the freed, To all the un freed, 'tis known, There'll be no rest for Ireland's breast Till Ireland Has Her Own. Age after age will nurse the rage That breeds not rage alone, Bringing no rest to Ireland's breast Till Ireland Has Her Own ! And tell me, when may Englishmen Win back the peace that's flown? There'll be no rest for England's breast Till Ireland Has Her Own. 32 TILL IRELAND HAS HER OWN 33 Each day, each hour, unhappier Power, On an unsurer throne! No rest, no rest for England's breast Till Ireland Has Her Own. TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET AGAIN (The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George) Like your renown-clad namesake, who did slay, Far across Time and its vast charnels drear, If only with a legendary spear A fabled dragon, you in your midday Did unto ravening things give battle, and they Felt your light lance through all their scales! They fear That lance no more, perceiving but too clear 34 TO THE PRIME MINISTER YET AGAIN 35 How rusted is its chivalry away. Plunged is that spear in no foul monster's side, But pointed at the Captive Maiden's breast, Who, greenly robed, sits pining to be free. For not as her Deliverer do you ride Forth, but to bid her guards be adamant, lest She escape i' the tempest from cap- tivity. THE STRANGER-MINSTREL O fair with broom and woodbine, And rowan and wild rose, Is the Land of Hope Deferred Where the shamrock grows; And thither did I stray In the long-gone day, And I gave my heart away To sweet Ireland. Dead Songsters of her household Have loved her and adored, And their love was like a flame, And their song was like a sword; 36 THE STRANGER-MINSTREL 37 But an alien bard to-day, All world-worn and gray,, Has sung his heart away To sweet Ireland. SECRET COMMUNION « Pert Folly said to skyborn Freedom: "Thou Hast been so long unknown on Ireland's shore, Art certain she doth miss thee any more? Nay, if thou should'st return to-morrow,, how Will she remember thee, whose face is now One of the vague, dim things of here- tofore? What if she pause, loth to unlatch her door 38 SECRET COMMUNION 39 To such a stranger?" Then with a lit brow Did Freedom speak: "Can Erin's soul forget Mine, her companion 'mid the fields and streams Of her far youth? Ah, no! And though it seems Ages untold since she and I have met Ev'n for a day, we meet at midnight yet, For always am I with her in her dreams." TO AN IRISH PATRIOT Your cause at its centre is pure: the wise plan Is to keep its circumference pure — if you can. 40 TO AN OPPRESSOR Come down from thy high seat! If with the blood of men Its steps be slippery, the more easy, then, The offsliding of thy feet! And back thou never shalt be asked to climb While this tired World ascends the stairs of Time. 41 THE TWO PUISSANCES Ireland, two Puissances there are,, that claim Untrammelled sovereign lordship and control, This o'er thy body, thy fair outward frame, That o'er the innermost places of thy soul. One, by the Thames, of perishing clay and lime Built its chief seat, and of mere crumbling stone. 42 THE TWO PUISSANCES 43 One beside Tiber, gazing beyond Time, Hath its unfrail, unmundane, mystic throne. And great and mighty are both these Powers on earth, O Ireland! But all men that breathe can see — Except the sightless who are blind from birth — Which of the twain doth verily reign in thee. THE VISION I looked forth through the Void, And a dark Hand did draw From the near West a curtain, and I saw Dull Tyranny, on the breath of Folly upbuoyed ; And a blind surgeon, Statecraft, there employed To keep the wounds of Ireland ever raw; And Rapine, masked as Order, his vast maw With vengeance still uncloyed; And round these forms, a dance of lawless Law O'er Liberty Destroyed. 44 ENGLAND'S CHOICE Yonder where shakes with antic laughter In elfin moonlight the spoilful sea, What shall the stars behold hereafter — Ireland captive or Ireland free ? Tempest or calm for the Mother who bore us, Age-crowned England — which shall it be? Reproach or acclaim in the morrow before us? Ireland captive or Ireland free? 45 46 England's choice The quick and the dead have joined their voices, O mighty and proud one, crying to thee — "Choose — while as yet in thy hands the choice is : Ireland captive or Ireland free." A List of Books by the same Author IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER M.B. — In every case where it is not otherwise stated, the books in this list are published by John Lane, The Bodley Head, Limited, London, or John Lane Company, New York. THE PRINCE'S QUEST AND OTHER POEMS First published by C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1880, and now by John Lane, The Bodley Head, Limited. Price $1.30 net. EPIGRAMS Published by G. G. Walmsley, Liverpool, 1884. Nozv out of print. WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE AND OTHER POEMS Published by T. Fisher Unwin, 1890. Out of pnnt, but its contents now incorporated in "Poems." WORDSWORTH'S GRAVE Illustrated by Donald Maxwell ("Flowers of Parnassus" Series). Price, leather, $1.00 net; cloth, 75 cents net. POEMS Published by Macmillan & Co., 1892, and after by John Lane. Nozv out of print. SELECTED POEMS Price, cloth, $1.25 net. LACRIMAE MUSARUM AND OTHER POEMS First published by Macmillan & Co., 1892, and after by John Lane. Now out of print THE ELOPING ANGELS Price $1.25 net. EXCURSIONS IN CRITICISM Essays and Comments on literary subjects. Price $1.50 net. ODES AND OTHER POEMS Price $1.30 net. THE FATHER OF THE FOREST AND OTHER POEMS Price $1.25 net. "THE PURPLE EAST" A series of Sonnets on England's Desertion of Armenia. Price 50 cents net. THE YEAR OF SHAME With Introduction by the late Lord Bishop of Hereford. Price $1.00 net. THE HOPE OF THE WORLD AND OTHER POEMS Price $1.25 net. ODE ON THE DAY OF THE CORONATION OF EDWARD VII Price $1.00 net. FOR ENGLAND Poems written during estrangement. Price $1.00 net. THE POEMS OF WILLIAM WATSON Two volumes. Edited by J. A. Spender. Con- tains almost the total contents of the preceding volumes in this list, with the author's very nu- merous emendations. Price $2.50 net. NEW POEMS Price $1.50 net. SABLE AND PURPLE Price $1.25 net. THE HERALDS OF THE DAWN A Dramatic Poem. Price $1.25 net. THE MUSE IN EXILE Price $1.25 net. PENCRAFT: A Plea for the Older Ways An essay challenging certain tendencies of mod- ern criticism. Price $1.00 net. RETROGRESSION AND OTHER POEMS Price $1.25 net. THE MAN WHO SAW AND OTHER POEMS Published by Harper & Brothers. Price $1.50 net. THE SUPERHUMAN ANTAGONISTS AND OTHER POEMS Published by George H. Doran Company. Price $2.00 net. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA i UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below Form L-0 201(1-1, '42(5ol») UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY j£ BS^G'ONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 368 895 PR 5752 165 , f i ^ v -"l "M^ '-- \V.: Pe