The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-03-02

verses:
There once was q time, and old songs
prove it,
, The earth was not round but an endless
plain;
The sea was wide as the heavens above
Just millions Of miles, land begin again.
And that was the tilne--ay, and I1ore's the
pity
It should ever end--when the world
could play, s's
When singers told tales Of crystal city.
In wonderful country far away!
But the schools must come, with their
scales and measures,
10 limit the visions and. weigh the
spells;
They scoffed at the dreams and the rain
+ bow treasures
And circled the world in their parallels;
They charted the Wales and the sunny
meadows,
Where poet might ride for q year and
a day;
They sounded the depths. and they
pierced the shadows
OF that wonderful country far away.
They questioned the slumbering babys
laughter,
And cautioned it's elders to dream by
rule;
All mysteries past and to come hereafter
Were settled and solved in their COM
mon school,
But sweeter the streams and the wild
birds singing,
The friendships and loves that were
true alway,
The gladness unseen, like a far bell ring
r ing,
! In that wonderful country far away.
20 re Of the highest h,no,s which
came to Boyle O'Reilly in his lifetime
was the invitation extended to him
by the Trustees OF the Catholic Uni
Velslty to read a poem on the occasion
OF the opening of that Institution, an
event that took place contemporane-
ously with the celebration, in Novem-
ber 1889, of the first centennial of the
establishment of the American Catho-
lie hierarchy. It was noteworthy
assemblage that gathered within the
walls OF the newly-opened university
ON that occasion. Mgr. Satolli, not
then accredited to his present Office,
was there, in the citEsluf especial
Papal Delegate; so were Cardinals
Gibbons and Taschereau, with numbers
of Americans and visiting prelates and
representatives of the National Gov
ernment, the army, the navy; and the
President, with his cabinet, sat
through portion of the proceedings
O'Reilly's poem was worthy of the oc-
casion, however. It was entitled,
From the Heights" and the conclud-
ing stanZa ran as follows:
Come to me for safety said the height:
In the future, as the past,
Road and river end at last,
Like raindrop. in the ever-circ1ing sea-.
Who shall know by lessened sight
Where the gain and where the loss
In the desert they must cross?
Guides who lead their charge from Ills.
Passing soon from town tic town,
Through the forest and the down,
Take direction from the hills;
Those who range wider land
Higher climb until they stand
Where the past and future seeing
Like far blue ocean-ring;
Those who sail from land afar
Leap from mountain top to star,
Higher still, from star to God,
Have the spirit-pilots trod,
Setting lights for mind and soul,
That the ships may reach the goal.
They shall safely steer who see:
Sight is wisdom. Come to mev''
In less than year after he penned
these noble lines, their gifted author
ascended himself to the heights whose
excellence he so loftily praised, and
the whole cultured world mourned his
departure. City wed with city in
honoring his memory; his virtues and
merits were praised by the highest and
lowest, and his name was spoken with
sorroWful affection in palace and cot
tage. Outside the great city in which
the last years of his life were spent,
his noblest works wrought, and
wherein he was idolized by all Glasses,
his remains rest beneath a massive
monument Of natures own moulding,
i'll the quiet peace and blessedness Of
Hollywood Cemetery. A tablet sunk in
the face of the giant boulder that
marks his grave denotes the place
where the poet lies asleep. The city
Of his adoption will soon rear, in one
Of her finest public places, a fitting
monument to the man whose loss she
has never ceased TO deplore; but John
Boyle OReilly needs no monument to
be unforgotten by the world in which
he was so prominent and honored a
parsonage while he dwelt here on
earth. His noble humanity, his grand
character, the imperishable nature CT
his everyday work, would give him
what men call immortality here below,
even il his songs had failed to win
that after life for him. His fame has
steadily increased since he passed from !
earth to the heights where his spirit
now abides; his name obtains frequent
loving and reverent mention in the
circles that he once graced, and his.
songs are quoted still as specimens
of our finest English verse and ex-
pressions of the noblest poetic santi-
ments. Each anniversary of his death
hears fond memories Of him reawaken-
ed by those who knew and loved him
best; and on each Decoration Day low
ing hands tender tributes upon the j
sward beneath which his mortal dust
reposes. Of himself, though, still is
true what another bard sang at the
time Of his death:
..Out OF thysfar green island cones sigh I
= Out of our free America moan,
For we are human, and to dies to die, !
And fame doth not for deaths dull I,
blow atone. ssss s III ~
Deathless albert they rhynne. ID 81
= But not sos the tearsss
ltsine sbfeat 81