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FROM CD #2:
Oh! Ye Dead

Words by Thomas Moore;
air: Plough Whistle, arranged by C. Villiers Stanford

Song Lyrics

Oh, ye Dead! Oh, ye Dead! whom we know by the light you give
From your cold gleaming eyes,
Tho' you move like men who live,
Why leave you thus your graves,
in far off seas and waves,
Where the worm and the seabird only know your bed.
To haunt this spot, where all
Those eyes that wept your fall,
And the hearts that wailed you like your own, lie dead!

It is true, It is true, We are shadows cold and wan;
And the fair, and the brave whom we loved on earth are gone,
But still thus ev'n in death,
So sweet the living breath
Of the fields and the flow'rs in our youth we wander'd o'er,
That ere, condemn'd, we go,
To freeze 'mid Hecla's snow,
We would taste it awhile, and think we live once more!

Notes on the Song

Here is Moore's original footnote to the song:

Paul Zealand mentions that there is a mountain in some part of Ireland, where the ghosts of persons who have died in foreign lands walk about and converse with those they meet, like living people. If asked why they do not return to their homes, they say they are obliged to go to Mount Hecla, and disappear immediately.

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