Samuel Lover

Samuel Lover (24 February 1797 – 6 July 1868), also known as "Ben Trovato" ("well invented"), was an Irish songwriter, composer and novelist, and a portrait painter, chiefly in miniatures.

A baby was sleeping; Its mother was weeping; For her husband was far on the wild raging sea; And the tempest was swelling Round the fisherman's dwelling; And she cried, "Dermot, darling, O come back to me!"

Her beads while she numbered, The baby still slumbered, And smiled in her face as she bended her knee; "O, blest be that warning, My child, thy sleep adorning, For I know that the angels are whispering with thee.

The dawn of the morning Saw Dermot returning, And the wife wept with joy her babe's father to see; And closely caressing Her child with a blessing, Said, "I knew that the angels were whispering with thee."

A memorial in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin marks his achievements: "Poet, painter, novelist and composer, who, in the exercise of a genius as distinguished in its versatility as in its power, by his pen and pencil illustrated so happily the characteristics of the peasantry of his country that his name will ever be honourably identified with Ireland.