Supporting Documents

SD327.  Autograph Manuscript “To the Harp” by Daniel McSwiney

Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 321 (in part).

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[ca. 1820]

To the Harp

Thou child of my country, thou source of emotion

The dearest, the sweetest that music can shed

O’er whom, for thee Erin, in lovely devotion

Their tears both the bard & the beauty have shed

Oh! be ever in silence or else be in sorrow

In sorrow or silence I’ll doat upon you

But let not, oh! let not impurity borrow

The strain that to fame or to sadness is due.

Thou wast dear once to heroes but they have no glory

Alas! the cold Saxon has clouded it all

Has extinguished the page that was bright with their story

And left but the music that wept for their fall

Then sacred, loved harp, be the voice of thy weeping

Their wrongs may thy spirit forever deplore

Ever melt in sad strains o’er the brave that are sleeping

The brave whom thy notes can enliven no more.

D. McS.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.

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