The Moonlit Erne

Source: The Stone Fiddle by Paddy Tunney

Location: New Edition, page 186 (Poem)

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Lovely are the summer nights where starry are the skies,

And in the perfumed tinted flowers flit moths and butterfiles.

When every daisy, rose and violet she a crystal tear,

And brightly shines the moonbeam’s light on Nature’s objects near.

Then fiery sparks as dewdrops on the gorse and pale-green fern,

And like a silver fairy lake stretches the tranquil Erne.

The wooded shored throw shadows on the fairy waters’ crest,

And on the islets and quiet bays the brilliant moonbeams rest,

And from the centre of the lake the silvery water fades,

And changes to light blue, and dark, and golden crystal shades.

Then lovely is that scene so fair and clear the countryside,

And golden are the fairy boats which on those water glide.

For when the Erne is lighted by the moon’s clear shining beams,

The fairies in their golden boats sail down the murmuring streams,

O’er the crystal water of the Erne such merry sound they make,

And every salmon, trout and perch from clumbers deep they wake,

And soon the fishes from the fairy folk their songs and dances learn,

Then joyful are the banquets held upon the moonlit Erne.

But when the fairies leave the lake and all is still and clear,

And little rabbits, all awake and through the grasses peer.

The lake is like a paradise on which the great God smiles,

And like the home of glorious saints its many wooded isles.

But ah, the scene is fading, for its nearly day,

And then the sun upon the Erne will cast his brightest ray.

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