Our Homeland[1]

Ours was a land of green and gold; More gold than green, when every fold Of down and upland was a blaze Of furze in bloom on April days. But when the summer-time was o’er, And fields of corn against the moor Waved gold on purple, and a haze Of sunlight filled the woodland ways, And far-off mountain boundaries Made azure lines on azure skies,

Here, and in the other poems of this volume, with few exceptions, the country described is the south-west of Ireland.

And earth and heaven together drew, Ours was a land of gold and blue. Yet sometimes, just at evenfall, When every old grey limestone wall And crumbling tower and rocky height Caught the last gleam of level light, And in the west a crimson glow Flushed the high cloud-field’s broken floe, And deepening shades encompassed us, And domes of coral cumulus Above the mountains far away In opal waters mirrored lay, Ours was a land of rose and grey.