Maurya's Song by Herbert Trench
Maurya's Song laments an Irish exile longing for the green shore, the cabin and mountain of the old country, where a mother is gone and the turf smoke will die. A second voice, a beloved low tone, makes the speaker's dreamed cities, armies, Troy, Charlemain, Odin and Cuchullain fade.
By Herbert Trench · First published 1901 · Genre: Elegy, Lament, Exile and diaspora literature · 360 words
First lines
Rushes that grow by the black water / When will I see you more? / When will the sorrowful heart forget you, / Land of the green, green shore? / When will the field and the small cabin / See us more / In the old country?
What is to me all the gold yonder? / She that bore me is gone. / Knees that dandled and hands that blessed me / Colder than any stone; / Stranger to me than the face of strangers / Are my own / In the old country.
Similar titles
- Sing Me A Song Of A Lad That Is Gone by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Westphalian Song by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Home No More Home To Me Whither Must I Wander by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Under The Moon by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- The Bonny Bird by Sabine Baring Gould
- The Lily Of St Leonards by Henry Lawson
Genres
- Elegy — The refrain 'In the old country' and the grief for a dead mother and a lost homeland make the poem a classic elegy for the absent dead and the lost place.
- Lament — Repeated questions ('When will I see you more?'), the cry 'She that bore me is gone' and the keening rhythm follow the Irish funeral lament tradition.
- Exile and diaspora literature — The speaker is cut off from the green shore, the cabin and the stream, and feels estranged among strangers, which defines exile writing.
- Irish Celtic Revival poetry — Imagery of the lone mountain, turf smoke, the door-stone and the hero Cuchullain places the poem within the Irish literary revival, and the title's name echoes Synge's Maurya.
Tags
Irish exile · emigration · homesickness · lament · elegy · Irish poetry · Ireland · green shore · the old country · mother's death · mountain and cabin · turf smoke
What this Textopian page supports
Maurya's Song is listed on Textopian as a poem by Herbert Trench, dated 1901 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Herbert Trench
- Date: 1901 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Elegy, Lament, Exile and diaspora literature, Irish Celtic Revival poetry, Nostalgic pastoral poetry
- Length: 360 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Maurya's Song by Herbert Trench
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