"Fainting heart and failing eye, Aching head and footstep weary"

"Fainting heart and failing eye, Aching head and footstep weary"

Lough Derg--Pilgrimage--Approach--Poetry

"Fainting heart and failing eye,
Aching head and footstep weary !
Courage, for the Lake is night
There beyond the hilltop dreary..."

Shane Leslie, 1885-1971

A Fortnight Ramble in Ireland (Leeds, 1846), Leslie, Shane, Saint Patrick's Purgatory: A Record from History and Literature, Shane, Saint Patrick's Purgatory: A Record from History and Literature, p. xxxii

Burns Oats and Washbourne Ltd, London

1932

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Collection of sources

English

Monograph

DD_0075

54.600640, -7.846374

"Fainting heart and failing eye,
Aching head and footstep weary !
Courage, for the Lake is night
There beyond the hilltop dreary
Onward o'er the heath and moss,
Where the grey rock peeps between
There your bleeding feet must cross
O'er the pools and rushes green ...
Not the long ascent is past,
Pause awhile to gather breath !
For the Lake is seen at last
Stretching wide and cold as death.
With a sadly murmuring sound
Those grey waters meet the shore
Where the wild and rocky ground,
Is with heath clumps sprinkled o'er.
Far above that dismal Lake
Heavily the vapours hung :
Nature for the sinner's sake
Morning shadows round them flung.
There in groups were hundreds kneeling
Keen remorse and anguish feeling,
Brooding o'er the awful story
Of St Patrick's Purgatory..."

Monograph