Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.

Introductory

Roisin Dubh; Or, the Bleeding Heart

By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)

Roisin Dubh signifies the “Black little Rose,” and was one of the mystical names under which the bards celebrated Ireland.

O, WHO art thou with that queenly brow

And uncrowned head?

And why is the vest that binds thy breast,

O’er the heart, blood-red?

Like a rosebud in June was that spot at noon,

A rosebud weak;

But it deepens and grows like a July rose:

Death-pale thy cheek!

“The babes I fed at my foot lay dead;

I saw them die:

In Ramah a blast went wailing past;

It was Rachel’s cry.

But I stand sublime on the shores of Time,

And I pour mine ode,

As Myriam sang to the cymbals’ clang,

On the wind to God.

“Once more at my feasts my bards and priests

Shall sit and eat:

And the Shepherd whose sheep are on every steep

Shall bless my meat!

O, sweet, men say, is the song by day,

And the feast by night;

But on poisons I thrive, and in death survive

Through ghostly might.”