Sublime was the warning (Michael William Balfe)
Music files
| ICON | SOURCE |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
Mp3 |
 |
File details |
 |
Help |
- (Posted 2024-01-11) CPDL #78682:
- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-01-11). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 560 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: Sublime was the warning
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)
Arranger: Michael William Balfe
Lyricist: Thomas Moore
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
First published: 1859 J. Alfred Novello
Description: AIR: THE BLACK JOKE
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
Sublime was the warning which Liberty spoke,
And grand was the moment when Spaniards awoke
Into life and revenge from the conqueror’s chain!
Oh Liberty! let not this spirit have rest,
Till it move, like a breeze, o’er the waves of the west—
Give the light of your look to each sorrowing spot,
Nor oh ! be the Shamrock of Erin forgot,
While you add to your garland the Olive of Spain!
If the fame of our fathers, bequeathed with their rights,
Give to country its charm, and to home its delights,
If deceit be a wound and suspicion a stain;
Then, ye men of Iberia! our cause is the same,
And oh! may his tomb want a tear and a name,
Who would ask for a nobler, a holier death,
Than to turn his last sigh into victory’s breath
For the Shamrock of Erin, and Olive of Spain!
Ye Blakes and O’Donnels, whose fathers resign’d
The green hills of their youth, among strangers to find
That repose which, at home, they had sigh’d for in vain,
Breathe a hope that a magical flame, which you light,
May be felt yet in Erin, as calm, and as bright,
And forgive even Albion, while blushing she draws,
Like a truant, her sword, in the long-slighted cause
Of the Shamrock of Erin, and Olive of Spain!
God prosper the cause!—oh! it cannot but thrive,
While the pulse of one patriot heart is alive,
Its devotion to feel, and its rights to maintain;
Then, how sainted by sorrow its martyrs will die!
The finger of Glory shall point where they lie,
While, far from the foot-step of coward or slave,
The young Spirit of Freedom shall shelter their grave
Beneath Shamrocks of Erin and Olives of Spain.