Skip to content
Linespedia

Tone's Grave.

Topics: classic

I.     In Bodenstown Churchyard there is a green grave,     And wildly along it the winter winds rave;     Small shelter, I ween, are the ruined walls there,     When the storm sweeps down on the plains of Kildare. II.     Once I lay on that sod--it lies over Wolfe Tone--     And thought how he perished in prison alone,     His friends unavenged, and his country unfreed--     "Oh, bitter," I said, "is the patriot's meed; III.     "For in him the heart of a woman combined     With a heroic life and a governing mind--     A martyr for Ireland--his grave has no stone--     His name seldom named, and his virtues unknown." IV.     I was woke from my dream by the voices and tread     Of a band, who came into the home of the dead;     They carried no corpse, and they carried no stone,     And they stopped when they came to the grave of Wolfe Tone. V.     There were students and peasants, the wise and the brave,     And an old man who knew him from cradle to grave,     And children who thought me hard-hearted; for they     On that sanctified sod were forbidden to play. VI.     But the old man, who saw I was mourning there, said:     "We come, sir, to weep where young Wolfe Tone is laid,     And we're going to raise him a monument, too--     A plain one, yet fit for the simple and true." VII.     My heart overflowed, and I clasped his old hand,     And I blessed him, and blessed every one of his band:     "Sweet! sweet! 'tis to find that such faith can remain     To the cause, and the man so long vanquished and slain." VIII.     In Bodenstown Churchyard there is a green grave,     And freely around it let winter winds rave--     Far better they suit him--the ruin and gloom--     TILL IRELAND, A NATION, CAN BUILD HIM A TOMB.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"I...."

Exploring the themes of classic, Thomas Osborne Davis delivers a powerful performance in "Tone's Grave."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Air--Viva la. I.     When, on Ramillies' bloody field,     The baffled French were forced to yield,     The victor Saxon backward reeled     B"

"I.     When boyhood's fire was in my blood     I read of ancient freemen     For Greece and Rome who bravely stood,     THREE HUNDRED MEN AND THR"

"Shall they bury me in the deep,     Where wind-forgetting waters sleep?     Shall they dig a grave for me,     Under the green-wood tree?"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Air--Viva la. I.     When, on Ramillies' bloody..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.