Sweet Innisfallen

Melody - "The Captivating Youth"

Thomas Moore, from Irish Melodies, vol. 9

Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well,
May calm and sunshine long be thine!
How fair thou art let others tell
To feel how fair shall long be mine.

2. Sweet Innisfallen, long shall dwell
In memory's dream that sunny smile,
Which o'er thee on that evening fell,
When first I saw thy fairy isle.

3. 'Twas light, indeed, too blest for one,
Who had to turn to paths of care
Through crowded haunts again to run,
And leave thee bright and silent there;*

4. No more unto thy shores to come,
But, on the world's rude ocean tost,
Dream of thee sometimes as a home
Of sunshine he had seen and lost.

5. Far better in thy weeping hour
To part from thee, as I do now,
When mist is o'er thy blooming bowers,
Like sorrow's veil on beauty's brow.

6. For, though unrivall'd still thy grace,
Thou dost not look, as then, too blest,
But, thus in shadow, seem'st a place
Where erring man might hope to rest

7. Might hope to rest, and find in thee
A gloom like Eden's, on the day
He left its shade, when every tree,
Like thine, hung weeping o'er his way.

8. Weeping or smiling, lovely isle!
And all the lovelier for thy tears
For though but rare thy sunny smile,
'Tis heaven's own glance when it appears.

9. Like feeling hearts whose joys are few,
But, when indeed they come, divine
The brightest light the sun e'er threw
Is lifeless to one gleam of thine!

* In the original edition the two preceding verses read:
Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well,
And long may light around thee smile,
As soft as on that evening fell
When first I saw thy fairy isle!

2. Thou wert too lovely then for one
Who had to turn to paths of care
Who had through vulgar crowds to run,
And leave thee bright and silent there.

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