Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well, <br />May calm and sunshine long be thine! <br />How fair thou art let others tell -- <br />To feel how fair shall long be mine. <br /> <br />Sweet Innisfallen, long shall dwell <br />In memory's dream that sunny smile, <br />Which o'er thee on that evening fell, <br />When first I saw thy fairy isle. <br /> <br />'Twas light, indeed, too blest for one, <br />Who had to turn to paths of care -- <br />Through crowded haunts again to run, <br />And leave thee bright and silent there; <br /> <br />No more unto thy shores to come, <br />But, on the world's rude ocean tost, <br />Dream of thee sometimes as a home <br />Of sunshine he had seen and lost. <br /> <br />Far better in thy weeping hour <br />To part from thee, as I do now, <br />When mist is o'er thy blooming bowers, <br />Like sorrow's veil on beauty's brow. <br /> <br />For, though unrivall'd still thy grace, <br />Thou dost not look, as then, too blest, <br />But, thus in shadow, seem'st a place <br />Where erring man might hope to rest -- <br /> <br />Might hope to rest, and find in thee <br />A gloom like Eden's, on the day <br />He left its shade, when every tree, <br />Like thine, hung weeping o'er his way. <br /> <br />Weeping or smiling, lovely isle! <br />And all the lovelier for thy tears -- <br />For though but rare thy sunny smile, <br />'Tis heaven's own glance when it appears. <br /> <br />Like feeling hearts whose joys are few, <br />But, when indeed they come, divine -- <br />The brightest light the sun e'er threw <br />Is lifeless to one gleam of thine!<br /><br />Thomas Moore<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sweet-innisfallen/
