| In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave
|
| And wildly around it the winter winds rave;
|
| Small shelter I ween are the ruined walls there
|
| When the storm sweeps down on the plains of Kildare
|
| Once I lay on that sod it lies over Wolfe Tone
|
| And thought how he perished in prison alone
|
| His friends unavenged and his country unfreed
|
| «Oh, bitter,» I said, «is the patriots meed
|
| «For in him the heart of a woman combined
|
| With heroic spirit and a governing mind
|
| A martyr for Ireland, his grave has no stone
|
| His name sheldom named, and his virtues unknown.»
|
| I was woke from my dream by the voices and tread
|
| Of a band who came into the home of the dead;
|
| They carried no corpse, and they carried no stone
|
| And they stopped when they came to the grave of Wolfe Tone
|
| There were students and peasants, the wise and the brave
|
| And an old man who knew him from cradle to grave
|
| And children who thought me hard-hearted, for they
|
| On that sanctified sod were forbidden to play
|
| But the old man, who saw I was mourning there, said:
|
| «We come, sir, to weep where young Wolfe Tone is laid
|
| And we’re going to raise him a monument, too
|
| A plain one, yet fit for the loyal and true.»
|
| My heart overflowed, and I clasped his old hand
|
| And I blessed him, and blessed every one of his band:
|
| «Sweet, sweet tis to find that such faith can remain
|
| In the cause and the man so long vanquished and slain.»
|
| In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave
|
| And freely around it let winter winds rave
|
| Far better they suit him the ruin and gloom
|
| Till Ireland, a nation, can build him a tomb |