Oh! a wan cloud was drawn
      O'er the dim, weeping dawn,
As to Shannon's side I returned at last;
      And the heart in my breast
      For the girl I loved best
Was beating -- ah, beating, how loud and fast!
      While the doubts and the fears
      Of the long, aching years
Seemed mingling their voices with the moaning flood;
      Till full in my path,
      Like a wild water-wraith,
My true love's shadow lamenting stood.

      But the sudden sun kissed
      The cold, cruel mist
Into dancing showers of diamond dew;
      The dark flowing stream
      Laughed back to his beam,
And the lark soared singing aloft in the blue;
      While no phantom of night,
      But a form of delight
Ran with arms outspread to her darling boy:
      And the girl I love best
      On my wild, throbbing breast
Hid her thousand treasures, with a cry of joy.