as amiable as a young bride should be; and I trust her sudden transition from gentleness to absolute ferocity, and her insatiate thirst for revenge, will not be considered out of character. I also hope it will not be supposed that I am stepping beyond the possibility of Nature, in making Adelia survive from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of William the Third, which, according to the manuscript already mentioned, that brings the first of the Macdonalds to Dunluce in 1580, would not be more than a period of one hundred years.

CANTO I.

THE AVENGED BRIDE.

CANTO I.

I.

ERIN! thy sons can sing of other climes,

And walk, with triumph, over classic groundAnd chaunt their lays, in soft and liquid rhymes, Charming the sense with harmony of sound; Unmindful all of home and olden times

The loves, the strifes within thy annals found

As if our native Isle no themes afford,

Nor sons possess, with hearts to strike the chord.

A

II.

Sad and forsaken hangs thy sacred lyre!

Hast thou not beauties? Are thy bards grown old?

Is the last spark of Minstrelsy's bright fire

Quench'd in their bosoms, and their hearts wax'd cold?

Thy virtues vanish'd—nought left to admire—
Thy glories gone by "Like a tale that's told"?

Will no bold hand the dust shake from the string,
And o'er its chords the soul of music fling?

III.

Where art thou, MOORE ?-From slumbering awake!
And take the harp, that, mould'ring, long had hung

In chains and darkness, 'till thou dared to break

The links that bound it, and around it flung

A brightness—that Oblivion's dusky lake,

From whose Lethean shade its chords thou'st wrung,

Can never hide-nor slavery, grief, nor pains,

Blot from the mind its heart-reviving strains.