In Bodentown’s Churchyard

Lyrics

[Verse 1] In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave And wildly around it the wintery winds rave; Small shelter I ween are the ruined walls there When the storm sweeps down on the plains of Kildare [Verse 2] Once I lay on that sod it lies over Wolfe Tone And I thought how he perished in prison alone His friends unavenged and his country unfreed "Oh, bitter," I thought, "is the patriots meed [Verse 3] "For in him the heart of a woman combined With heroic spirit and a governing mind A martyr for Ireland, his grave has no stone His name sheldom namеd, and his virtues unknown." [Verse 4] I was woke from my dream by thе voices and tread Of a band who came into the home of the dead; They carried no corpse, and they carried no stone And they stopped when they came to the grave of Wolfe Tone [Verse 5] But the old man who saw I was mourning there said "We come sir to weep where Wolfetone is laid And we're going to build him a monument too A plain one yet fit for the simple and true" [Verse 6] My heart overflowed and I clasped his old hand I blessed him and blessed everyone in his band How sweet tis to see that such faith can remain To the cause of the man, so long vanquished and slain [Verse 7] In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave And wildly around it the wintery winds rave; Far better they soothed him the ruin and the gloom Until Ireland, a nation, might build him a tomb