The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-06-19

Of the North. when In wrath he had
left his kinsmen of the South, he had
chanted that celebrated hymn named
Trust" Its notes were triumphant,
beginning thus:
"Alone am l ON the mountain;
o Royal Son, prosper my path"
and ending
II adore not the voice of birds,
Nor chance, nor the love of son, or n
wife.
My Druid is Christ, the Son of God,
The Son of Mary, the Great Abbot,
The Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit.
My lands are with the King of Kings,
My orders at Kells and at Moorc.'
The note In this poetry was Subducd
afterwards into Il sadness whose pathos,
in equal depth and tenderness, is to be
found In the verses of no other poet.
Never an cXiled monarch, never an ex-
He'd patriotic statesman writhcd more
anguishingly that COLUMBIA under the
doom which recognized It to be in ac-
cordance with the will of Heaven, he
had not thought to oppose Gather
ing around him few of the young
priests. and others of the Scots who
were eager to join their fortunes with
his in his bark Of oslcrs, he badc adicu
the Irish Sea. Landing first at Colon
say, one of the Hebridcs, having rested
brief space, he climbed the highest
mountain, and turning his gaze to the
South, saw dimly the cliffs of Erin.
Descending. he said to his fo;ftiwers,
who opposed that they were to remain
there: No. they must arise and go
further forth over the main; 1t would
not be in faithful futlllmcnt of his
penance to fix his dwelling except clear
ly without a view of the land which he
to forsake: and so they proceeded to
Iona.
OF all places In which to begin the
foundation of n new civilization, this,
to any other than prophet, would have
seemed most unsuitcd, this one among
Il number of other desolate rocky, san
dy Islands, where none but scantiest
vegetation had ever grown, n region
whose bleakncss and wilderness seven
teen centuries ago appalled, Agric0la,
the Roman general. as he looked upon
shores by the surrounding seas. No
view OF Erin was there. yet the exile
proceeded to the farther side, and
settled in view OF Null and the Cliffs
of MOrvcn, where his first work was Il
mound of stones, s!"rc become re-
nowned In history us the Cairn of Fare
well. THUS" said the Count Montu-
lambert, "thc monustic capital of Scot
land, and the centre of Christian civil
ization In the north of Great Britain,
came into being thirteen centuries ago"
But VIC are considering him now
mainly AZ Il poet; the few of whose YER
SEES that have been preserved are among
the choicest relics of the literature of
was never to depart from his breast In
the midst OF his fOundings of hundreds
of monastcrics in the midst of missions
md conversions. his heart was ever
ycarning for the land of his birth, and
his voice broke forth in songs like this:
"What Joy to fly upon the whitc-crest-
cd sea,
And to witch the waves break upon the
Irish shore!
What Joy to row the little bark, and
land among
The whitening foam upon the Irish
shore!
All, how my boat would fly If It's Prov
were turned to my Irish oak
grove!
But the noble sea now carries me to AL
biOn,
The land of ravens
Or like the following, wherein he tells
of Derry favoritc among all his monas-
tcres in Erin:
Were all the tributes Of Scotia mine,
From its midland to its borders,
! would give all for one little cell
In my beautiful Derry.
My Derry, my fair oak grove,
My dear little cell and dwelling!
o God in the heavens above,
Let him who prOfanes it be cursed!
Beloved arc Dnrrow and Derry,
Beloved is ItaphOe, the pure,
Beloved the fertile DrumhOme,
Beloved are Sorrs and Kcls;
But sWectcr and faircr to me
The salt sea where the sca-gulls cry,
When come to Derry from far,
1t is swceter and dcarer to me,
Sweeter to me.
Among the things belonging both to
poetry and prophecy, few, If any, moro
touching have come down to lis than
the following legend in whose verify
the Christian world has always trusted.
One morning he called one of the
monks and said to him: "Go and scat