School: Taobh Breac (roll number 15227)

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1. Daniel McDonald and the Fairies (continued)

   

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   22. They had sailed the minstrel knew not how long,
   On those waters of silvery sheen:
   For his thoughts, beguiled by the fairy song,
   Had in realms afar off been,
   When a hurricane gale sprang up in the East,
   And came with a savage roar,
   Tossing the waves into boiling yeast
   That clung to each bending oar.

   23. On came the winds with a lightning sweep
   From their far-off Eastern home.
   And the fated bark with a sudden leap
   Went down in the boiling foam
   The fairy forms with exultant yell
   Leaped forth with a lightning motion
   And were borne away on the hurricane’s swell
   But the minstrel sank in the ocean

   24. On, on he sank in the watery deep
   For the fates forbade him drown:
   On, twice then thousand fathom deep,
   And still as he glided down
   The waters kept surging to and fro
   With a wild tumultuous ringing
   And down in the ocean’s caves below
   Were a band of sea-nymphs singing

   25. “Hail, thou king of the tempest! Hail
   Fiend of the deep!
   Breathing thy wrath in the hissing gale,
   Mocking with groan and shriek and wail
   And eyes that weep
   The waifs whose doom thy voice is knelling
   Then to the skies thy fury telling:
   The blackening clouds with taunts insulting,
   Which goaded by thee to rebelling
   High on their aerial thrones exulting
   Frown dark as from their bosoms swelling
   Faint lightning’s peep!”

   26. A challenge: ho: Through the clefted air
   The bright fangs flash,
   And smite thy crest with a lurid glare
   While the clouds their frenzied bosoms tear
   As the angry crash
   Of their smothered fury bondage breaking,
   Rushing, trembling, rallying, quaking
   Distant trembling echoes making
   Fills the dark night. In mocking fashion
   Thy voice with fiendish laughter shaking
   Is heard above their frantic passion
   Their wrath hath set thee merry, making.

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. place-space-environment
      1. land management (~4,110)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Donnachadh E. Mac Congáile

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Múinteoir

   Informant

   James Mc Loughlin

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Tievebrack, Co. Donegal