"Of her tears and her blood, "Let the rainbow of Hope be her WELLINGTON'S name!" THE TIME I'VE LOST IN WOOING. AIR.-Peas upon a Trencher. I. THE time I've lost in wooing, In watching and pursuing The light that lies In Woman's eyes, Though Wisdom oft has sought me, Were Woman's looks, And folly's all they've taught me. II. Her smile when Beauty granted, ! Like him, the Sprite,* Oft meet in glen that's haunted. But while her eyes were on me— Was turn'd away, Oh! winds could not outrun me. III. And are those follies going? And is my proud heart growing Too cold or wise For brilliant eyes No-vain, alas! th' endeavour * This alludes to a kind of Irish Fairy, which is to be met with, they say, in the fields, at dusk ::—as long as you keep your eyes upon him, he is fixed and in your power; but the moment you look away (and he is ingenious in furnishing some inducement) he vanishes. I had thought that this was the sprite which we call the Leprechaun; but a high authority upon such subjects, Lady MORGAN (in a note upon her national and interesting Novel, O'Donnel) has given a very different account of that Goblin. "OH! haste and leave this sacred isle, * In a metrical life of St. Senanus, which is taken from an old Kilkenny MS. and may be found among the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ, we are told of his flight to the island of Scattery, and his resolution not to admit any woman of the party; he refused to receive even a sister saint, St. Cannera, whom an angel had taken to the island, for the express purpose of introducing her to him. The following was the ungracious answer of Senanus, according to his poetical biographer: Cui Præsul, quid foeminis "For on thy deck, though dark it be. "A female form I see; "And I have sworn this sainted sod "Shall ne'er by woman's feet be trod!" THE LADY. "Oh! Father, send not hence my bark The Lady's prayer SENANUS spurn'd; Till morning's light delay'd, Nec te nec ullam aliam Admittemus in insulam. See the Acta Sanct. Hib. page 610. According to Dr. Ledwich, St. Senanus was no less a personage than the river Shannon; but O'Connor, and other Antiquarians, deny this metamorphose indignantly. |