<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To My Eldest Child</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">My little firstborn daughter sweet—</p><p class="line">My child, yet half of alien race—</p><p class="line">England and Ireland surely meet,</p><p class="line">Their feuds forgotten, in thy face.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">To both these lands I'd have thee give</p><p class="line">Thy maiden heart, surrendered free;</p><p class="line">For both alike I'd have thee live,</p><p class="line">Since both alike do live in thee.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">In thee they lay their strife aside,</p><p class="line">That were so worn with dire unrest,</p><p class="line">These whom the waters parted wide,</p><p class="line">But who commingle in thy breast.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">These will I teach thee to revere,</p><p class="line">To love, and serve, and understand;</p><p class="line">Nor chide thee if thou hold more dear</p><p class="line">Thy mother's than thy father's land.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The English fields, in sun and rain,</p><p class="line">Were round about thee at thy birth;</p><p class="line">But thou shalt ache with Ireland's pain,</p><p class="line">And thou shalt laugh with Ireland's mirth.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thou shalt be taught her noble songs,</p><p class="line">And thou shalt grieve whene'er is told</p><p class="line">The story of her ancient wrongs,</p><p class="line">The story of her sorrows old.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And often, in thy English home,</p><p class="line">Her voice will call, and thou obey.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thy heart will cross the sundering foam,</p><p class="line">Thy soul to Ireland sail away</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ah, little flower! in Irish ground</p><p class="line">Thy roots are deeper than the sea,</p><p class="line">Though English woodlands murmured round</p><p class="line">The house of thy nativity.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Of both these peoples thou wert born,</p><p class="line">Of both these lands thou art the child;</p><p class="line">A symbol of the radiant morn</p><p class="line">That shall behold them reconciled.</p></div></body></html> · Great War