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| MELLOW the moonlight to shine is beginning, |
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| Close by the window young Eileen is spinning; |
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| Bent over the fire her blind grandmother, sitting, |
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| Is crooning, and moaning, and drowsily knitting:— |
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| “Eileen, achora, I hear someone tapping.” |
5 |
| “’Tis the ivy, dear mother, against the glass flapping.” |
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| “Eily, I surely hear somebody sighing.” |
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| “’Tis the sound, mother dear, of the summer wind dying.” |
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| Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring, |
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| Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot’s stirring; |
10 |
| Sprightly, and brightly, and airily ringing |
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| Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing. |
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| “What’s that noise that I hear at the window, I wonder?” |
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| “’Tis the little birds chirping the holly-bush under.” |
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| “What makes you be shoving and moving your stool on, |
15 |
| And singing, all wrong, that old song of ‘The Coolun’?” |
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| There’s a form at the casement—the form of her true love— |
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| And he whispers, with face bent, “I’m waiting for you, love; |
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| Get up on the stool, through the lattice step lightly, |
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| We’ll rove in the grove, while the moon’s shining brightly.” |
20 |
| Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring, |
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| Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot’s stirring; |
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| Sprightly, and brightly, and airily ringing |
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| Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing. |
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| The maid shakes her head, on her lips lays her fingers, |
25 |
| Steals up from her seat—longs to go, and yet lingers; |
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| A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother, |
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| Puts one foot on the stool, spins the wheel with the other, |
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| Lazily, easily, swings now the wheel round, |
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| Slowly and lowly is heard not the reel’s sound; |
30 |
| Noiseless and light to the lattice above her |
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| The maid steps—then leaps to the arms of her lover. |
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| Slower—and slower—and slower the wheel swings; |
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| Lower—and lower—and lower the reel rings; |
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| Ere the reel and the wheel stopped their ringing and moving, |
35 |
| Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving. |
