by James Henry Cousins (1873 - 1956)
To Eire
Language: English
To Thee, Beloved, of old there came The sailers of a thousand ships Who learned to love Thy hidden name, And love the music on Thy lips; But some, who thought to build Thy pyre And on its ruin rear a throne, Have loved to sit around Thy fire And count Thy saddest songs their own; And sons of Thine, who broke love's bands To seek a fabled far-off shore, Grope thro' the world with aching hands, And hunger for Thee evermore; For, tho' Thy sorrow may not cease, Tho', blessing, Thou are still unblest, Thou has for men a Gift of Peace, O Daughter of Divine Unrest!
Authorship:
- by James Henry Cousins (1873 - 1956), "To Eire", appears in The Quest, first published 1908 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), "To Eire", 1910, published 1919 [ voice and piano ], from Album of Seven Songs [or Seven Selected Songs], no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-08-15
Line count: 16
Word count: 108