The stars up in the air, <br />The sun and the moon are gone, <br />The strand of its waters is bare. <br />And her sway is swept from the swan. <br /> <br />The cuckoo was calling all day, <br />Hid in the branches above, <br />How my stóirín is fled away, <br />'Tis my grief that I gave her my love. <br /> <br />Three things through love I see-- <br />Sorrow and sin and death-- <br />And my mind reminding me <br />That this doom I breathe with my breath. <br /> <br />But sweeter than violin or lute <br />Is my love--and she left me behind. <br />I wish that all music were mute, <br />And I to all beauty were blind. <br /> <br />She's more shapely than swan by the strand, <br />She's more radiant than grass after dew, <br />She's more fair than the stars where they stand-- <br />'Tis my grief that her ever I knew!<br /><br />Thomas MacDonagh<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-stars-stand-up-in-the-air/
