YOUNG UNA
Upon the shore young Una lies,
A smile upon her mouth;
Soft breezes kiss her heavy hair,
Slow blowing from the south.
Within the cabin on the hill
Her mother doth complain:
“God bless the child! her feet are slow
To bear her home again.”
Her mother's mother, grey and old,
She laughs beside the fire:
“Once I was hot as she, a-stór.
To gain my heart's desire.”
And Una, smiling on the sea,
She speaks no word at all,
But watches with untiring eyes
The waves that break and fall.
Far in the East her father's ship
Lifts the blue waves to foam.
Her father's hand upon the helm
Now guides the vessel home.
And he hath safe a robe of silk,
All gold as Una's hair;
Strange jewels, too, from out the West,
To deck his child so fair.
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