THE REBEL HEART
From Rebel veins my life I draw,
In Rebel arms I lay;
From Rebel lips my lessons knew,
That led me day by day;
And rocked to rest on Rebel breast,
And nursed on Rebel view,
There woke and grew for weal or woe,
A Rebel heart in me.
Chorus
A Rebel heart! A Rebel heart!
From taint of thraldom free,
God strengthen still, through good and ill,
A Rebel heart in me.
My home was where the Moher heights
Rise rugged o'er the wave,
And nature's scenes and nature's sights
Forbad me live a slave;
The billows on the crag that crashed
Still thundered “Liberty”!
And at the cry throbbed fast and high
The Rebel heart in me.
i read my country's chequered page,
I sang her deathless songs;
I wept her woes from age to age.
And burned to right her wrongs;
And when I saw to alien law
She never bent the knee
O prouder yet for Ireland beat
The Rebel heart in me.
I've wondered East, I've wondered West,
'Mid scenes and faces strange,
And passing years have in my breast
Wrought many a wondrous change;
One hope of old still firm I hold,
And cold in earth I'll be,
Ere breaks or falls, or sinks or quails
The Rebel heart in me.
Francis A Fahy.
