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IRISH MELODIES. |
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THEY KNOW NOT MY HEART.
They know not my heart, who believe there can be One stain of this earth in its feelings for thee ; Who think, while I see thee in beauty's young hour, As pure as the morning's first dew on the flow'r, I could harm what I love — as the sun's wanton ray But smiles on the dew-drop to waste it away.
No—beaming with light as those young features are, There's a light round thy heart which is lovelier far : It is not that cheek—'tis the soul dawning clear Thro' its innocent blush makes thy beauty so dear ; As the sky we look up to, though glorious and fair, Is look'd up to the more, because heaven lies there ! |
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I WISH I WAS BY THAT DIM LAKE.
I wish I was by that dim Lake* "Where sinful souls their farewell take Of this vain world, and half-way lie In death's cold shadow, ere they die.
* These verses are meant to allude to that ancient haunt of superstition, called Patrick's Purgatory. " In the midst of these gloomy regions of Donegal (says Dr. Campbell) lay a lake, which was to become the mystic theatre of this fabled and intermediate state. In the lake were several islands; but one of them was dignified with that called the Mouth of Purgatory, which, during the dark ages, attracted the notice of all Christendom, and was the |
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