In describing the beauties of Dublin Bay, it cannot be out of place to give the finest poetic address to it that was ever written. It will be new to most English and many Irish readers. The poem is by the late D. F. M'Carthy:-- "My native Bay, for many a year I've loved thee with a trembling fear, Lest thou, though dear and very dear, And beauteous as a vision, Shouldst have some rival far away, Some matchless wonder of a bay, Whose sparkling waters ever play 'Neath azure skies elysian. "'Tis love, methought, blind love that pours The rippling magic round these shores, For whatsoever love adores Becomes what love desireth; 'Tis ignorance of aught beside That throws enchantment o'er the tide, And makes my heart respond with pride To what mine eye admireth. "And thus unto our mutual loss, Whene'er I paced the sloping moss Of green Killiney, or across The intervening waters; Up Howth's brown side my feet would wend To see thy sinuous bosom bend, Or view thine outstretched arms extend To clasp thine islet daughters. "My doubt was thus a moral mist,-- Even on the hills when morning kissed The granite peaks to amethyst, I felt its fatal shadow; It darkened o'er the brightest rills, It lowered upon the sunniest hills, And hid the wingèd song that fills The moorland and the meadow. "But now that I have been to view All that Nature's self could do, And from Gaeta's arch of blue Borne many a fond memento; And gazed upon each glorious scene, Where beauty is and power has been, Along the golden shores between Misenum and Sorrento; "I can look proudly on thy face, Fair daughter of a hardier race, And feel thy winning well-known grace, Without my old misgiving; And as I kneel upon thy strand, And clasp thy once unhonoured hand, Proclaim earth holds no lovelier land Where life is worth the living."