Robert Emmet Anniversary

Subject: Robert Emmet Anniversary
From: Fiolar
Date: 21 Sep 03 - 06:02 AM

Yesterday, September 20th was the 200th anniversary of the execution of Robert Emmet. (Yes I know I'm late, but I couldnt access the site). Most folks will know the songs "The Bold Robert Emmet" and "She is Far From the Land" which deals with the sadness of Sarah Curran. Pursuing that line here is a bit more about his sweetheart Sarah. She married a Captain Robert Sturgeon in 1805 and they had one child which died in infancy. Sarah herself died on May 5th 1808 of TB. I came across the following poem which was published in The Nation in 1854 and found it of interest.

Her sorrows are Numbered:
Published in the Nation Newspaper in 1854.

Her sorrows are numbered - no longer she weeps;
Every pang she endured is requited.
With endless delight and in silence she sleeps;
For in death with her love she's united.

Like Sidney he died, but his memory shall live
Like the bosom of those who deplore him;
And pity, her purest of dew-drop shall give
To the sorrow of her who adored him.

For he loved - was beloved! But alas in his bloom
The ordeal of fate here, soon tried him;
And his spirit took flight from the world of gloom
To that glory, that here was denied him.

From regions of bliss - the high hears alone
Where sorrows can never invade him.
He saw her distress and he beckoned his love
To ascend, and with joy she obeyed him.

And she who is joined to the spirit she mourned
Now in bliss 'tis in vain to deplore her;
For her memory shall live in the bosoms inured,
Who vowed ever in death to adore her.

Whether hero, or lover, or else, matters not,
Other times - other men, shall divine him;
Let him rest with his love, by the world forgot
We have hearts large enough to enshrine him.

Subject: ADD: Oh Breathe Not His Name (Thos. Moore)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Sep 03 - 07:28 AM

Interesting, Fiolar. I have to confess that I had forgotten what I've read about Robert Emmet, but I see that he has a Website, http://www.robertemmet.org.
-Joe Offer-

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Here's Thomas Moore's piece about Emmet:

OH, BREATHE NOT HIS NAME
(Thomas Moore)

Oh, breathe not his name,
Let it sleep in the shade,
Where cold and unhonored,
His relics are laid;
Sad, silent and dark
Be the tears that we shed,
As night dew that weeps
On the grave o'er his head.

But the night dew that falls,
Tho' in silence it weeps,
Shall brighten with vendure
The grave where he sleeps;
And the tears that we shed,
Tho' in secret it rolls,
Shall long keep his memory
Green in our souls.

source: The Contemplator (tune available at Contemplator site)