Explore "Some Poems of Roger Casement" by Roger Casement on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Since treason triumphed when O'Neill was forced to foreign flight, / The ancient people felt the heel of Scotch usurper's might; / The barren hills of Ulster held a race proscribed and banned / Who from their lofty refuge viewed their own so fertile land. / Their churches in the sunny vales; the homes that once were theirs, / Torn from them and their Faith to feed some canting minion's prayers: / Oh Lord! from many a cloudy hill then streamed our prayers to Thee, / And like the dawn on summer hills, that only watchers see, / Thy glorious hope shone on us long before the sleeping foe / Knew that their doom had broken on the sword of Owen Roe.
'Twas dawn of fair June morning, while Blackwater still drew grey, / His valley'd mists about him that we saw at Killylea, / The Scottish colours waving as they headed to the ford / Where never foemen waded yet, but paid it with the sword; / And fair it was to see them in the golden morning light, / Climb up the hill by Caledon and turn them to the right; / As they neared Yellow Ford, where Bagnall met O'Neill, / Joy gathered in our throats and broke above their cannons' peal, / And oh! a thrill went through our ranks, as straining towards the foe, / Like hounds in leash we panted for the word of Owen Roe.