The Irish standard., 1908-08-15


groves lift their lances to the sky,
Dipped in windswept salutations to
the phantoms fleeting BY
Ghosts of legions from the dead past,
haunting every dale and glen,
Long-lost warriors whom the fireside
legends say will come again;
Ternes unkempt and gallowglasses.
spurred and booted cavaliers.
Heroes of the skian and pike-shaft,
warriors of the sword and spears.
Fairy queens, and elves of moonlight,
Druid priest and Christian saint,
Grit around with all the glamour of
twilight, grey and faint.
Lo! they pass among the shadows,
there beneath us in the glen,
Shades of night, they hold the presage
that dawn shall rise again!
Shall we see it? shall we see that gold
dawn break across the sea?
God. roll back the mists of ages from
Thine Isle of Destiny!
Let Thy glad smile break around it
from the center to the deep:
From the wind-rocked eagles nest to
where the black sea-urchins sleep.
Is she proven? Hath she not borne all
her centuries of wrong,
Darkened but by fitful CLEAN of patri-
ot-sword and poet-song? ~
Hath she not repealed in scorn threats
of hell. and brides unpriced,
For your honor, o We nations? for Thy
sacred creed. 0 Christ?
Summon then, from farthest shores,
Thy winged angel, Liberty!
Let her spread her mighty pinions DER
the Sleeper of the Sea!
Let her wave her wings of light, and
gather from the speeding years
All the remnants of her army, all the
worlds pioneers!
Lo! across the ocean swinging, plunge
the argosies of light;
Hark the anthemed echoes ringing
through the watches of the night!
Hearts of steel and hands of iron grid
their motherland once MORE
Great world-builders. thewed and SIN
ewey like the mighty men of yore.
Gates Of Ocean! swing your seawings
back from Camden to Carlisle,
Piers of power granite sockets, for
the wide worlds turnstile!
Saxon names still cling to you; on
your cliffs are Saxon guns;-
Those We'll change. and these will
thunder where the swirlins sea-
tide runs.
AS the sea tide comes and f1lls dark
ened blight and river nook,
Shall our legions spread and fill the
sacred soil they once forsook?
Pine-fedged mountain, governed sea.
shore. stately city, hermit dale,
Echo back the shout exultant of the
sea-united Gael.
Mother Ireland! Mother Ireland gath.
cred here around thy knee,
Thou shalt tell thy sons returned all
thy glorious history
Not the tale Of Troy and Carthage, or
d. their hundred storied peers.
But thy own dear fight for freedom
lasting twice three hundred years.
Mother Ireland! we will crown thee,
chance or change, whate'er may
Not with Britain's nodding helmet, not
with Gallia's Phrygian cap;
But coronal of shamrocks, dewy
from the fragrant sod,
Blessed for ever by Thy Saint as sym.
Dol Of the Triune God!
Shall we see 1t? Thou. who swineest
suns and systems into space,
Turn Thine eyes to rest moment on
the cradle of our race!
IT'S a speck in Thy vast worlds. But
what are Kingdoms unto Thee?
Suns and sands alike are atoms in Thy
vast immensely.
What Thou seest are souls that spring
from out the matrix of the earth,
Souls that strain to reach the splend,
ors Of promised second birth.
Valiant souls that spurn the gifts OF
Fortune, to be ever free.
Lovers ardent. clients fervent Of their
country and of Thee.
Will Thy face cen turn towards us?
Lo. there's light upon the sea,
Trembling upwards as the black Night
spreads his raven wing to fee.
Sky and sea have felt Thy breath;
earth is shaken meath Thy feet,