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Poems MacCarthy, Florence Denis

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166<br />

"Cease to do evil--learn to do well!"<br />

Or art thou one whose strong and fearless pen<br />

Roused the Young Isle, and bade it dry its tears,<br />

And gathered round thee ardent, gifted men,<br />

The hope of Ireland in the coming years?<br />

Who dares in prose and heart-awakening rhyme,<br />

Bright hopes to breathe and bitter truths to tell?<br />

Oh! dangerous criminal, repent thy crime,<br />

"Cease to do evil--learn to do well!"<br />

"Cease to do evil"--ay! ye madmen, cease!<br />

Cease to love Ireland--cease to serve her well;<br />

Make with her foes a foul and fatal peace,<br />

And quick will ope your darkest, dreariest cell.<br />

"Learn to do well"--ay! learn to betray,<br />

Learn to revile the land in which you dwell<br />

England will bless you on your altered way<br />

"Cease to do evil--learn to do well!"<br />

105. This inscription is on the front of Richmond Penitentiary, Dublin,<br />

in which O'Connell and the other political prisoners were confined in<br />

the year 1844.<br />

THE LIVING LAND.<br />

We have mourned and sighed for our buried pride,[106]<br />

We have given what nature gives,<br />

A manly tear o'er a brother's bier,<br />

But now for the Land that lives!<br />

He who passed too soon, in his glowing noon,<br />

The hope of our youthful band,<br />

From heaven's blue wall doth seem to call<br />

"Think, think of your Living Land!<br />

I dwell serene in a happier scene,<br />

Ye dwell in a Living Land!"<br />

Yes! yes! dear shade, thou shalt be obeyed,

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