Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Permissions
- Introduction: ‘Slow Tide on Tide of History’: Poetry by Women in Ireland, 1870–1970
- A Note on the Texts
- Elizabeth Varian (1821–1851–1896)
- Watch and Wait
- Never Forsake the Ship
- Under the Bridge
- In the Workhouse
- ‘Give Peace in Our Time, O Lord!’
- Our Common Cause
- My Sisters
- Emily Hickey (1845–1881–1924)
- Katharine Tynan (1858–1885–1931)
- Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866–1893–1918)
- Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1898–1926)
- Emily Lawless (1845–1902–1913)
- Susan L. Mitchell (1866–1906–1926)
- Alice Milligan (1866–1908–1953)
- Winifred M. Letts (1881–1913–1972)
- Eileen Shanahan (1901–[1921]–1979)
- Mary Devenport O'Neill (1879–1929–1967)
- Blanaid Salkeld (1880–1933–1959)
- Sheila Wingfield (1906–1938–1992)
- Freda Laughton (1907–1945–?)
- Rhoda Coghill 1903–1948–2000
- Appendix 1: Irish Women Poets 1870–1970
- Appendix 2: Chronology
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Under the Bridge
from Elizabeth Varian (1821–1851–1896)
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Permissions
- Introduction: ‘Slow Tide on Tide of History’: Poetry by Women in Ireland, 1870–1970
- A Note on the Texts
- Elizabeth Varian (1821–1851–1896)
- Watch and Wait
- Never Forsake the Ship
- Under the Bridge
- In the Workhouse
- ‘Give Peace in Our Time, O Lord!’
- Our Common Cause
- My Sisters
- Emily Hickey (1845–1881–1924)
- Katharine Tynan (1858–1885–1931)
- Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866–1893–1918)
- Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1898–1926)
- Emily Lawless (1845–1902–1913)
- Susan L. Mitchell (1866–1906–1926)
- Alice Milligan (1866–1908–1953)
- Winifred M. Letts (1881–1913–1972)
- Eileen Shanahan (1901–[1921]–1979)
- Mary Devenport O'Neill (1879–1929–1967)
- Blanaid Salkeld (1880–1933–1959)
- Sheila Wingfield (1906–1938–1992)
- Freda Laughton (1907–1945–?)
- Rhoda Coghill 1903–1948–2000
- Appendix 1: Irish Women Poets 1870–1970
- Appendix 2: Chronology
- Select Bibliography
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Summary
The midnight chimes rang out: the startled air
Was freighted with the peals from spire and tower,
Till the spent echoes died within their lair.
Softly the dew slept in each folded flower,
The wild bird brooded on her summer nest,
And worn sad eyes were closed in blissful rest.
Darkly the river surged upon its way,
Turbid and rank and grim—a venomed snake
Gliding with stealthy tread—the foul murk spray
Flecking with slime each object in its wake.
Like charnel lights, the lamps’ dull glare came back,
Reflected from the waters’ loathsome track.
O'er many a fair young head the stream swept on,
Mid golden locks the ghastly tangles wreathed;
The conflict o'er, the weary guerdon won—
By hidden graves the waters foamed and seethed,
Rich laden argosies sailed to and fro,
Unheeded slept the buried wrecks below!
Darkly the waters flowed with sullen swoop
Through the blank arches, hurrying feet o'er head,
And grating wheels the ponderous fabric shook;
Beneath reigned silence, drear and dumb and dead.
An ebbless tide, like some ill–omened bird,
Swept mid the darkness, though no sound was heard.
I said the darkling river poured its flood
Through the dim arches—one was bare and dry,
A ghastly grotto by the wave withstood,
A dismal vault black as the blinded sky:
Gaunt, spectral, shorn of even the pale lamp's glare,
And yet the pulse of life was throbbing there!
A pallid child stretched on the naked stones,
Begrimmed and fouled—the bleeding blistered feet
Shivered with pain, and low half–sobbing moans
Broke from the dreamer in his strange retreat.
Poor blossom! sin and blight with baleful power
Robbed of his heritage the human flower.
Mid misty hills, deep glens, the river rose,
Pure, sweet, and chill, reflecting from the stream
The golden sunset at the day's soft close,
The fern's green plumage, and the Mayflower's gleam;
Catching no fouler blot, no darker stain,
Than the cloud's shadow, and the falling rain.
Unsullied fount from whence the waters sprung,
Pure source that gave the blighted spirit life…
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- Information
- Poetry by Women in IrelandA Critical Anthology 1870–1970, pp. 62 - 64Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2012