The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3824   Message #2019190
Posted By: Jim Dixon
07-Apr-07 - 01:57 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The 12th of July (riot in Montreal)
Subject: Lyr Add: SONG FOR JULY 12TH 1843 (John D. Fraser)
Found with Google Book Search: This text appears in several books, but I selected the oldest of the ones available: The Spirit of the Nation, published by James Duffy, Dublin, 1845.

The same song/poem is in the DT (see THE 12TH OF JULY), and has been posted elsewhere in the forum, (see Today in Irelands History) but there are numerous small differences, not the least of which are the title and the spelling of the author's name. For the fun of it, I have tried to reproduce the formatting, but you will have to narrow your browser window to make the centering look right. (Is there a way I can make this work with HTML?)

SONG FOR JULY 12TH, 1843.

BY J[ohn] D. FRASER.

AIR—"Boyne Water."

I.

Come—pledge again thy heart and hand—
  One grasp that ne'er shall sever;
Our watchword be—"Our native land"—
  Our motto—"Love for ever."
And let the Orange lily be,
  Thy badge, my patriot brother—
The everlasting Green for me;
  And—we for one another.

II.

Behold how green the gallant stem
  On which the flower is blowing;
How in one heav'nly breeze and beam
  Both flower and stem are glowing.
The same good soil sustaining both,
  Makes both united flourish:
But cannot give the Orange growth,
  And cease the Green to nourish.

III.

Yes, more—the hand that plucks that flower
  Will vainly strive to cherish:
The stem blooms on—but in that hour
  The flower begins to perish.
Regard them, then, of equal worth
  While lasts their genial weather;
The time's at hand when into earth
  The two shall sink together.

IV.

Ev'n thus be, in our country's cause,
  Our party feelings blended;
Till lasting peace, from equal laws,
  On both shall have descended.
Till then the Orange lily be
  Thy badge, my patriot brother—
The everlasting Green for me;
  And—we for one another.

formatting fixed by format leprechuan