The West's Asleep Thomas Davis    (1814-1845)

1000 Years of Irish Poetry: The Gaelic & Anglo-Irish Poets from Pagan Times to the Present edited by Kathleen Hoagland Old Saybrook: Konecky & Konecky, 1975

When all besides a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep;
Alas and well may Érin weep,
When Connaught lies in slumber deep.
There lake and plain smile fair and free,
'Mid rocks, their guardian chivalry;
Sing O! Let man learn liberty
From crashing wind and lashing sea.

That chainless wave and lovely land
Freedom and Nationhood demand.
Be sure the great God never planned
For slumbering slaves a home so grand.
And long a brave and haughty race
Honored and sentinelled the place;
Sing O! Not e'en their sons' disgrace
Can quite destroy their glory's trace.

For often in O'Connor's van
To triumph dashed each Connaught clan;
And fleet as deer the Normans ran
Through Corlieu's Pass and Ardrahan.
And later times saw deeds as brave;
And glory guards Clanricard's grave.
Sing O! They died their land to save,
At Aughrim's slopes and Shannon's wave.

And if, when all a vigil keep,
The West's asleep, the West's asleep;
Alas! and well may Érin weep,
That Connaught lies in slumber deep.
But hark! some voice like thunder spake,
"The West's awake, the West's awake
Sing O! Hurra! Let England quake,
We'll watch till death for Érin's sake!"