Chapter M: S. M (1)

Surrender 141

MANGAN, JAMES CLARENCE
Pentecost 142
Dark Rosaleen 143

MACDONAGH, THOMAS
What is White? 146
Wishes for My Son 147

MACMANUS, SEUMAS
Resignation 148
In Dark Hour 150

MAYNARD, THEODORE
A Song of Colours 151
The World’s Miser 152
Cecidit, Cecidit, Babylon Magna 153
A Song of Laughter 154
Apocalypse 155

MCCARTHY, DENIS A.
St. Brigid 156
Rosa Mystica 160
The Poor Man’s Daily Bread 161

MCGEE, THOMAS D’ARCY
To Ask Our Lady’s Patronage 162

MEYNELL, ALICE
A General Communion 163
The Shepherdess 163
Christ in the Universe 164
“I Am the Way” 165
Via, et Veritas, et Vita 166
Unto Us a Son is Given 166
To a Daisy 167
The Newer Vainglory 168

MEYNELL, WILFRID
The Folded Flock 168

MORIARTY, HELEN L.
Convent Echoes 169

NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY
England 170
The Pillar of the Cloud 171
The Greek Fathers 171
Relics of Saints 172
The Sign of the Cross 173

O’DONNELL, C.S.C., CHARLES L.
The Son of God 173
To St. Joseph 174
The Dead Musician 175

O’HAGAN, THOMAS
Giotto’s Campanile 178

O’REILLY, JOHN BOYLE
Name of Mary 179

O’REILLY, MARY A.
A Christmas Carol 180

O. SHEEL, SHAEMAS
Roma Mater Sempaeterna 182
Mary’s Baby 183
They Went Forth to Battle 183
He Whom A Dream Hath Possessed 184

PALLEN, CONDÉ BENOIST
Maria Immaculata 186
The Raising of the Flag 191
The Babe of Bethlehem 194

PATMORE, COVENTRY
The Toys 195
“If I Were Dead” 197
Departure 197
Regina Cœli 199

PEARSE, P. H.
Ideal 199

PHILLIPS, CHARLES
Music 200

PLUNKETT, JOSEPH M.
I See His Blood Upon the Rose 202
The Stars Sang in God’s Garden 202

PROBYN, MAY
Is It Nothing to You? 203
The Bees of Myddleton Manor 204

PROCTOR, ADELAIDE ANNE
A Legend 210
The Sacred Heart 211
The Annunciation 214
Our Daily Bread 216

RANDALL, JAMES RYDER
My Maryland 217
Magdalen 220
Why the Robin’s Breast Was Red 221

REPPLIER, AGNES
Le Repos in Egypte--The Sphinx 221

ROCHE, JAMES JEFFREY
Andromeda 222
Nature the False Goddess 223
Three Doves 224
The Way of the World 225

ROONEY, JOHN JEROME
Ave Maria 225
Revelation 227
Marquette on the Shores of the Mississippi 229
The Empire Builder 230
The Men Behind the Guns 233

RUSSELL, S.J., MATTHEW
A Thought From Cardinal Newman 234

RYAN, ABRAM J.
The Conquered Banner 235
A Child’s Wish 237
Sword of Robert E. Lee 238
Song of the Mystic 239

SETON, E.
Mary, Virgin and Mother 242

SIGERSON DORA
The Wind on the Hills 242

SPALDING, JOHN LANCASTER
Believe and Take Heart 244

STODDARD, CHARLES WARREN
Ave Maria Bells 245
Stigmata 246
The Bells of San Gabriel 247

STRAHAN, G.S.C., SPEER
The Poor 249
The Promised Country 250
Holy Communion 250

SWAN, CAROLINE D.
Stars of Cheer 251

TABB, JOHN BANNISTER
Christ and the Pagan 252
Out of Bounds 253
Father Damien 253
Recognition 253
“Is Thy Servant a Dog?” 254

THOMPSON, FRANCIS
Lilium Regis 254
To the English Martyrs 255
The Hound of Heaven 261
The Dread of Height 267
To My Godchild 270

TYNAN, KATHERINE
Michael the Archangel 272
Planting Bulbs 274
Sheep and Lambs 275
The Making of Birds 276
The Man of the House 278

WALSH, THOMAS
Cœlo et in Terra 279
Egidio of Coimbra 281

Dreams and Images

OUR LORD AND OUR LADY

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

They warned Our Lady for the Child
That was Our Blessed Lord,
And She took Him into the desert wild,
Over the camel’s ford.

And a long song She sang to Him
And a short story told:
And She wrapped Him in a woolen cloak
To keep Him from the cold.

But when Our Lord was grown a man
The Rich they dragged Him down,
And they crucified Him in Golgotha,
Out and beyond the Town.

They crucified Him on Calvary,
Upon an April day;
And because He had been her little Son
She followed Him all the way.

Our Lady stood beside the Cross,
A little space apart,
And when She heard Our Lord cry out
A sword went through Her Heart.

They laid Our Lord in a marble tomb,
Dead, in a winding sheet.
But Our Lady stands above the world
With the white Moon at Her feet.

TO THE BALLIOL MEN STILL IN AFRICA

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

Years ago when I was at Balliol,
Balliol men--and I was one--
Swam together in winter rivers,
Wrestled together under the sun.
And still in the heart of us, Balliol, Balliol,
Loved already, but hardly known,
Welded us each of us into the others:
Called a levy and chose her own.

Here is a House that armours a man
With the eyes of a boy and the heart of a ranger,
And a laughing way in the teeth of the world
And a holy hunger and thirst for danger:
Balliol made me, Balliol fed me,
Whatever I had she gave me again:
And the best of Balliol loved and led me,
God be with you, Balliol men.

I have said it before, and I say it again,
There was treason done, and a false word spoken,
And England under the dregs of men,
And bribes about, and a treaty broken:
But angry, lonely, hating it still,
I wished to be there in spite of the wrong.
My heart was heavy for Cumnor Hill
And the hammer of galloping all day long.

Galloping outward into the weather,
Hands a-ready and battle in all:
Words together and wine together
And song together in Balliol Hall.
Rare and single! Noble and few!...
Oh! they have wasted you over the sea!
The only brothers ever I knew,
The men that laughed and quarrelled with me.

* * * * *

Balliol made me, Balliol fed me,
Whatever I had she gave me again;
And the best of Balliol loved and led me,
God be with you, Balliol men.

THE SOUTH COUNTRY

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

When I am living in the Midlands
That are sodden and unkind,
I light my lamp in the evening:
My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country
Come back into my mind.

The great hills of the South Country
They stand along the sea;
And it’s there walking in the high woods
That I could wish to be,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Walking along with me.

The men that live in North England
I saw them for a day:
Their hearts are set upon the waste fells,
Their skies are fast and grey;
From their castle-walls a man may see;
The mountains far away.

The men that live in West England
They see the Severn strong,
A-rolling on rough water brown,
Light aspen leaves along.
They have the secret of the Rocks,
And the oldest kind of song.

But the men that live in the South Country
Are the kindest and most wise,
They get their laughter from the loud surf,
And the faith in their happy eyes
Comes surely from our Sister the Spring
When over the sea she flies;
The violets suddenly bloom at her feet,
She blesses us with surprise.

I never get between the pines
But I smell the Sussex air;
Nor I never come on a belt of sand
But my home is there.
And along the sky the line of Downs
So noble and so bare.

A lost thing could I never find,
Nor a broken thing mend:
And I fear I shall be all alone
When I get towards the end.
Who will there be to comfort me
Or who will be my friend?

I will gather and carefully make my friends
Of the men of the Sussex Weald,
They watch the stars from silent folds,
They stiffly plough the field.
By them and the God of the South Country
My poor soul shall be healed.

If I ever become a rich man,
Or if ever I grow to be old,
I will build a house with deep thatch
To shelter me from the cold,
And there shall the Sussex songs be sung
And the story of Sussex told.

I will hold my house in the high wood
Within a walk of the sea,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Shall sit and drink with me.

THE EARLY MORNING

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

The moon on the one hand, the dawn on the other:
The moon is my sister, the dawn is my brother,
The moon on my left and the dawn on my right.
My brother, good morning: my sister, good night.

THE PROPHET LOST IN THE HILLS AT EVENING

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

Strong God which made the topmost stars
To circulate and keep their course,
Remember me; whom all the bars
Of sense and dreadful fate enforce.

Above me in your heights and tall,
Impassable the summits freeze,
Below the haunted waters call
Impassable beyond the trees.

I hunger and I have no bread.
My gourd is empty of the wine.
Surely the footsteps of the dead
Are shuffling softly close to mine!

It darkens. I have lost the ford.
There is a change on all things made.
The rocks have evil faces, Lord,
And I am awfully afraid.

Remember me! the Voids of Hell
Expand enormous all around.
Strong friend of souls, Emmanuel,
Redeem me from accursed ground.

The long descent of wasted days,
To these at last have led me down;
Remember that I filled with praise
The meaningless and doubtful ways
That lead to an eternal town.

I challenged and I kept the Faith,
The bleeding path alone I trod;
It darkens. Stand about my wraith,
And harbour me--almighty God!

THE BIRDS

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

When Jesus Christ was four years old,
The angels brought Him toys of gold,
Which no man ever had bought or sold.

And yet with these He would not play.
He made Him small fowl out of clay,
And blessed them till they flew away:
_Tu creasti Domine_.

Jesus Christ, Thou child so wise,
Bless mine hands and fill mine eyes,
And bring my soul to Paradise.

COURTESY

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

Of Courtesy, it is much less
Than Courage of Heart or Holiness,
Yet in my Walks it seems to me
That the Grace of God is in Courtesy.

On Monks I did in Storrington fall,
They took me straight into their Hall;
I saw Three Pictures on a wall,
And Courtesy was in them all.

The first Annunciation;
The second the Visitation;
The third the Consolation,
Of God that was Our Lady’s Son.

The first was of Saint Gabriel;
On Wings a-flame from Heaven he fell;
And as he went upon one knee
He shone with Heavenly Courtesy.

Our Lady out of Nazareth rode----
It was her month of heavy load;
Yet was Her face both great and kind,
For Courtesy was in Her Mind.

The third it was our Little Lord,
Whom all the Kings in arms adored;
He was so small you could not see
His large intent of Courtesy.

Our Lord, that was Our Lady’s Son,
Go bless you, People, one by one;
My Rhyme is written, my work is done.

NOEL

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

I

On a winter’s night long time ago
(_The bells ring loud and the bells ring low_),
When high howled wind, and down fell snow
(Carillon, Carilla).
Saint Joseph he and Notre Dame,
Riding on an ass, full weary came
From Nazareth into Bethlehem,
And the small child Jesus smile on you.

II

And Bethlehem inn they stood before
(_The bells ring less and the bells ring more_),
The landlord bade them begone from his door
(Carillon, Carilla).
“Poor folk” (says he), “must lie where they may,
For the Duke of Jewry comes this way,
With all his train on a Christmas Day.”
And the small child Jesus smile on you.

III

Poor folk that may my carol hear
(_The bells ring single and the bells ring clear_),
See! God’s one child had hardest cheer!
(Carillon, Carilla).
Men grown hard on a Christmas morn;
The dumb beast by and a babe forlorn.
It was very, very cold when our Lord was born.
And the small child Jesus smile on you.

IV

Now these were Jews as Jews may be
(_The bells ring merry and the bells ring free_).
But Christian men in a band are we
(Carillon, Carilla).
Empty we go, and ill be-dight,
Singing Noel on a Winter’s night.
Give us to sup by the warm firelight,
And the small child Jesus smile on you.

AFTER A RETREAT

BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON

What hast thou learnt to-day?
Hast thou sounded awful mysteries,
Hast pierced the veiléd skies,
Climbed to the feet of God,
Trodden where saints have trod,
Fathomed the heights above?
_Nay,
This only have I learnt, that God is love._

What hast thou heard to-day?
Hast heard the Angel-trumpets cry,
And rippling harps reply;
Heard from the Throne of flame
Whence God incarnate came
Some thund’rous message roll?
_Nay,
This have I heard, His voice within my soul._

What hast thou felt to-day?
The pinions of the Angel-guide
That standeth at thy side
In rapturous ardours beat,
Glowing, from head to feet,
In ecstasy divine?
_Nay,
This only have I felt, Christ’s hand in mine._

THE TERESIAN CONTEMPLATIVE

BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON

She moves in tumult; round her lies
The silence of the world of grace;
The twilight of our mysteries
Shines like high noonday on her face;
Our piteous guesses, dim with fears,
She touches, handles, sees, and hears.

In her all longings mix and meet;
Dumb souls through her are eloquent;
She feels the world beneath her feet
Thrill in a passionate intent;
Through her our tides of feeling roll
And find their God within her soul.

Her faith and awful Face of God
Brightens and blinds with utter light;
Her footsteps fall where late He trod;
She sinks in roaring voids of night;
Cries to her Lord in black despair,
And knows, yet knows not, He is there.

A willing sacrifice she takes
The burden of our fall within;
Holy she stands; while on her breaks
The lightning of the wrath of sin;
She drinks her Saviour’s cup of pain,
And, one with Jesus, thirsts again.

HOW SHALL I BUILD

BY WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT

How shall I build my temple to the Lord,
Unworthy I, who am thus foul of heart?
How shall I worship who no traitor word
Know but of love to play a suppliant’s part?
How shall I pray, whose soul is as a mart,
For thoughts unclean, whose tongue is as a sword
Even for those it loves, to wound and smart?
Behold how little I can help Thee, Lord.

The Temple I would build should be all white,
Each stone the record of a blameless day;
The souls that entered there should walk in light,
Clothed in high chastity and wisely gay.
Lord, here is darkness. Yet this heart unwise,
Bruised in Thy service, take in sacrifice.

SONG

BY WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT

O fly not, Pleasure, pleasant-hearted Pleasure;
Fold me thy wings, I prithee, yet and stay:
For my heart no measure
Knows, or other treasure
To buy a garland for my love to-day.

And thou, too, Sorrow, tender-hearted Sorrow,
Thou gray-eyed mourner, fly not yet away:
For I fain would borrow
Thy sad weeds to-morrow,
To make a mourning for love’s yesterday.

The voice of Pity, Time’s divine dear Pity,
Moved me to tears: I dared not say them nay,
But passed forth from the city,
Making thus my ditty
Of fair love lost forever and a day.

THE DESOLATE CITY

BY WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT

Dark to me is the earth. Dark to me are the heavens.
Where is she that I loved, the woman with eyes like stars?
Desolate are the streets. Desolate is the city.
A city taken by storm, where none are left but the slain.

Sadly I rose at dawn, undid the latch of my shutters,
Thinking to let in light, but I only let in love.
Birds in the boughs were awake; I listen’d to their chaunting;
Each one sang to his love; only I was alone.

This, I said in my heart, is the hour of life and pleasure.
Now each creature on earth has his joy, and lives in the sun,
Each in another’s eyes finds light, the light of compassion,
This is the moment of pity, this is the moment of love.

Speak, O desolate city! Speak, O silence in sadness!
Where is she that loved in my strength, that spoke to my soul?
Where are those passionate eyes that appealed to my eyes in passion?
Where is the mouth that kiss’d me, the breast that I laid to my
own?

Speak, thou soul of my soul, for rage in my heart is kindled.
Tell me, where didst thou flee in the day of destruction and fear?
See, my arms enfold thee, enfolding thus all heaven,
See, my desire is fulfilled in thee, for it fills the earth.

Thus in my grief I lamented. Then turned I from the window,
Turn’d to the stair, and the open door, and the empty street,
Crying aloud in my grief, for there was none to chide me,
None to mock my weakness, none to behold my tears.

Groping I went, as blind. I sought her house, my beloved’s.
There I stopp’d at the silent door, and listen’d and tried the
latch.
Love, I cried, dost thou slumber? This is no hour for slumber,
This is the hour of love, and love I bring in my hand.

I knew the house with its windows barr’d, and its leafless fig-tree,
Climbing round by the doorstep, the only one in the street;
I knew where my hope had climbed to its goal and there encircled,
All those desolate walls once held, my beloved’s heart.

There in my grief she consoled me. She loved when I loved not.
She put her hand in my hand, and set her lips to my lips.
She told me all her pain and show’d me all her trouble.
I, like a fool, scarce heard, hardly return’d her kiss.

Love, thy eyes were like torches. They changed as I beheld them.
Love, thy lips were like gems, the seal thou settest on my life.
Love, if I loved not then, behold this hour thy vengeance;
This is the fruit of thy love and thee, the unwise grown wise.

Weeping strangled my voice. I call’d out, but none answered;
Blindly the windows gazed back at me, dumbly the door;
She whom I love, who loved me, look’d not on my yearning,
Gave me no more her hands to kiss, show’d me no more her soul.

Therefore the earth is dark to me, the sunlight blackness,
Therefore I go in tears and alone, by night and day;
Therefore I find my love in heaven, no light, no beauty,
A heaven taken by storm, where none are left but the slain!

A CHRISTMAS SONG

BY TERESA BRAYTON

O Lord, as You lay so soft and white,
A Babe in a manger stall,
With the big star flashing across the night,
Did you know and pity us all?
Did the wee hands, close as a rosebud curled,
With the call of their mission ache,
To be out and saving a weary world
For Your merciful Father’s sake?

Did You hear the cries of the groping blind,
The woe of the leper’s prayer,
The surging sorrow of all mankind,
As You lay by Your Mother there?
Beyond the shepherds, low bending down,
The long, long road did You see
That led from peaceful Bethlehem town
To the summit of Calvary?

The world grown weary of wasting strife,
Had called for the Christ to rise;
For sin had poisoned the springs of life
And only the dead were wise.
But, wrapped in a dream of scornful pride,
Too high were its eyes to see
A Child, foredoomed to be crucified,
On a peasant Mother’s knee.

But, while the heavens with glad acclaim
Sang out the tale of Your birth,
A mystic echo of comfort came
To the desolate souls of earth.
For the thrill of a slowly turning tide
Was felt in that grey daybreak,
As if God, the Father, had sanctified
All sorrow for One Man’s sake.

O Child of the Promise! Lord of Love!
O Master of all the earth!
While the angels are singing their songs above,
We bring our gifts to Your birth.
Just the blind man’s cry, and the lame man’s pace,
And the leper’s pitiful call;
On these, over infinite fields of space,
Look down, for You know them all.

LIKE ONE I KNOW

BY NANCY CAMPBELL

Little Christ was good, and lay
Sleeping, smiling in the hay;
Never made the cows round eyes
Open wider at His cries;
Never when the night was dim,
Startled guardian Seraphim,
Who above Him in the beams
Kept their watch round His white dreams;
Let the rustling brown mice creep
Undisturbed about His sleep.
Yet if it had not been so--
Had He been like one I know,
Fought with little fumbling hands,
Kicked inside His swaddling bands,
Puckered wilful crimsoning face--
Mary Mother, full of grace,
At that little naughty thing,
Still had been a-worshipping.

MEA CULPA

BY ETHNA CARBERY

Be pitiful, my God!
No hard-won gifts I bring--
But empty, pleading hands
To Thee at evening.

Spring came, white-browed and young,
I, too, was young with Spring.
There was a blue, blue heaven
Above a skylark’s wing.

Youth is the time for joy,
I cried, it is not meet
To mount the heights of toil
With child-soft feet.

When Summer walked the land
In Passion’s red arrayed,
Under green sweeping boughs
My couch I made.

The noon-tide heat was sore,
I slept the Summer through;
An angel waked me--“Thou
Hast work to do.”

I rose and saw the sheaves
Upstanding in a row;
The reapers sang Thy praise
While passing to and fro.

My hands were soft with ease,
Long were the Autumn hours;
I left the ripened sheaves
For poppy-flowers.

But lo! now Winter glooms,
And gray is in my hair,
Whither has flown the world
I found so fair?

My patient God, forgive!
Praying Thy pardon sweet
I lay a lonely heart
Before Thy feet.

IN TIR-NA’N-OG

BY ETHNA CARBERY

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
Summer and spring go hand in hand, and in the radiant weather
Brown autumn leaves and winter snow come floating down together.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
The sagans sway this way and that, the twisted fern uncloses,
The quicken-berry hides its red above the tender roses.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
The blackbird lilts, the robin chirps, the linnet wearies never,
They pipe to dancing feet of _Sidhe_ and thus shall pipe forever.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
All in a drift of apple blooms my true love there is roaming,
He will not come although I pray from dawning until gloaming.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
The _Sidhe_ desired my Heart’s Delight, they lured him from my
keeping,
He stepped within a fairy ring while all the world was sleeping.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
He hath forgotten hill and glen where misty shadows gather,
The bleating of the mountain sheep, the cabin of his father.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
He wanders in a happy dream thro’ scented golden hours,
He flutes, to woo a fairy love, knee deep in fairy flowers.

_In Tir-na’n-Og,
In Tir-na’n-Og,_
No memory hath he of my face, no sorrow for my sorrow,
My flax is spun, my wheel is hushed, and so I wait the morrow.

LADY DAY IN IRELAND

BY P. J. CARROLL, C.S.C.

Through the long August day, mantled blue with a sky of Our Lady,
They are there at the well from the dawn till the sea birds go
home;
And the trees bending down with broad leaves offer spots that are
shady,
Where the heart is at rest, sighing prayers till the shadows are
come.

The brown beads and the crucifix pass in procession through fingers
That are pale as the snow or are hardened from labor and pain.
In each _Ave_ they whisper the deep Celtic tenderness lingers,
Like a sweet phrase in song that is echoed and echoed again.

Marching down the white road with the sun in the noon of his
splendor
Are the children, with joy in the blue of their innocent eyes;
In their hearts is a song, breaking forth into words that are
tender,
Unto her with the gold of the stars and the blue of the skies.

In the still summer air there’s a chorus of minstrelsy breaking,
There are flashes of gold with a flutter and waving of wings:
Mary’s birds are they, come with the dawn, all the green woods
forsaking,
Every heart in them breaking for love with the message it brings.

Through the calm August day, with Our Lady’s blue sky far above
them,
And beyond the grey mountains where slumbers the Irish green sea,
There they speak to her, weep while they pray to her, beg her to
love them,
Till beyond the bright stars where their home and their treasure
shall be.

ST. PATRICK’S TREASURE

BY P. J. CARROLL, C.S.C.

Called son by many lands,
Thou art a father unto one.
Of all these mothers claiming thee,
By honored titles naming thee,
We ask: Where is thy priceless birthright gone?

That blessed faith of thine,
They mothering thee have sold.
But she, thy daughter dutiful,
Has kept thy treasure beautiful
Through many sorrows in her heart of gold.

THE SPOUSE OF CHRIST

BY D. A. CASEY

He came to her from out eternal years,
A smile upon His lips, a tender smile
That, somehow, spoke of partings and of tears.

’Twas eventide, and silence brooded low
On earth and sky--the hour when haunting fears
Of mystery pursue us as we go.

Strange, mystic shadows filled the temple dim,
But on the Golden Door the ruby glow
Spoke orisons more sweet than vesper hymn.

No human accents voiced His gentle call,
No crashing thunderbolts did wait on Him,
As when of old He deigned to summon Saul.

But heart did speak to heart, an unseen chord
In Love’s own scale did sweetly rise and fall;
Nor questioned she, but meekly answered “Lord!”

To-night some household counts a vacant chair,
But far on high Christ portions the reward,
A hundred-fold for each poor human care.

CHRIST THE COMRADE

BY PADRAIC COLUM

Christ, by Thine own darkened hour
Live within my heart and brain!
Let my hands not slip the rein.

Ah, how long ago it is
Since a comrade rode with me!
Now a moment let me see

Thyself, lonely in the dark,
Perfect, without wound or mark.

AN OLD WOMAN OF THE ROADS

BY PADRAIC COLUM

Oh, to have a little house,
To own the hearth and stool and all--
The heaped-up sods upon the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!

To have a clock with weights and chains,
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!

I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue speckled store.

I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed, and loth to leave
The ticking clock and shining delph.

Och! but I’m weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there’s never a house or bush,
And tired I am of bog and road,
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush.

And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house--a house of my own--
Out of the wind’s and the rain’s way.

THE HEAVIEST CROSS OF ALL

BY KATHERINE ELEANOR CONWAY

I’ve borne full many a sorrow, I’ve suffered many a loss--
But now, with a strange, new anguish, I carry this last dread cross;
For of this be sure, my dearest, whatever thy life befall,
The cross that our own hands fashion is the heaviest cross of all.

Heavy and hard I made it in the days of my fair strong youth,
Veiling mine eyes from the blessed light, and closing my heart to
truth.
Pity me, Lord, whose mercy passeth my wildest thought,
For I never dreamed of the bitter end of the work my hands had
wrought!

In the sweet morn’s flush and fragrance I wandered o’er dewy
meadows,
And I hid from the fervid noontide glow in the cool green woodland
shadows;
And I never recked, as I sang aloud in my wilful, selfish glee,
Of the mighty woe that was drawing nigh to darken the world for me.

But it came at last, my dearest--what need to tell thee how?
Mayst never know of the wild, wild woe that my heart is bearing now!
Over my summer’s glory crept a damp and chilling shade,
And I staggered under the heavy cross that my sinful hands had made.

I go where the shadows deepen, and the end seems far off yet--
God keep thee safe from the sharing of this woeful late regret!
For of this be sure, my dearest, whatever thy life befall,
The crosses we make for ourselves, alas! are the heaviest ones of
all.

SATURNINUS

BY KATHERINE ELEANOR CONWAY

He might have won the highest guerdon that heaven to earth can give,
For whoso falleth for justice--dying, he yet shall live.

He might have left us his memory to flame as a beacon light,
When clouds of the false world’s raising shut the stars of heaven
from sight.

He might have left us his name to ring in our triumph song
When we stand, as we’ll stand at to-morrow’s dawn, by the grave of a
world-old wrong.

For he gave thee, O mother of valiant sons, thou fair, and sore
oppressed,
The love of his youth and his manhood’s choice--first-fruits of his
life, and best.

Thine were throb of his heart and thought of his brain and toil of
his strong right hand;
For thee he braved scorn and reviling, and loss of gold and land,

Threat and lure and false-hearted friend, and blight of a broken
word--
Terrors of night and delay of light--prison and rack and sword.

For thee he bade death defiance--till the heavens opened wide,
And his face grew bright with reflex of light from the face of the
Crucified.

And his crown was in sight and his palm in reach and his glory all
but won,
And then--he failed--God help us! with the worst of dying done.

Only to die on the treacherous down by the hands of the tempters
spread--
Nay, nay--make way for the strangers! we have no right in the dead.

But oh, for the beacon quenched, that we dreamed would kindle and
flame!
And oh, for the standard smirched and shamed, and the name we dare
not name!

Over the lonesome grave the shadows gather fast;
Only the mother, like God, forgives, and comforts her heart with the
past.

DREAMING OF CITIES DEAD

BY ELEANOR ROGERS COX

Dreaming of cities dead,
Of bright Queens vanished,
Of kings whose names were but as seed wind-blown
E’en when white Patrick’s voice shook Tara’s throne,
My way along the great world-street I tread,
And keep the rites of Beauty lost, alone.

Cairns level with the dust--
Names dim with Time’s dull rust--
Afar they sleep on many a wind-swept hill,
The beautiful, the strong of heart and will--
On whose pale dreams no sunrise joy shall burst,
No harper’s song shall pierce with battle-thrill.

Long from their purpled heights,
Their reign of high delights,
The Queens have wended down Death’s mildewed stair,
Leaving a scent of lilies on the air,
To gladden Earth through all her days and nights,
That once she cherished anything so fair.

DEATH OF CUCHULAIN

BY ELEANOR ROGERS COX

Silent are the singers in the purple halls of Emain,
Silent all the harp-strings untouched of any hand,
Wan as twilight roses the radiant, royal women,
Black unto the hearthstone the erstwhile flaming brand.

Inward far from ocean the storm’s white birds are flying,
Darting, like dim wraith flames across the falling night.
Winds like a _caoine_ through the quicken groves are sighing,
On no lip is laughter, in no heart delight.

For thitherwards witch-wafted athwart the sundering spaces,
Lo, a word doom-freighted unto Conchubar has come,
Whispering of one who in far-off, hostile places
Strikes a last defending blow for king and home.

And the King pacing lone in his place of High Decision,
Gazing with rapt eyes on that far-flung battle-plain,
Through the red rains rising beholds with startled vision
Sight such as man’s eye shall not see again.

For one there is dying, of his foes at last outnumbered,
One whose soul a sword was, shaped by God’s own hand,
One who guarded Ulaidh when all her knighthood slumbered,
Prone beneath the curse laid of old upon the land.

And dying so, alone, of all mortal aid forsaken,
Dead his peerless war steeds, dead his charioteer,
Yet the high splendor of his spirit all unshaken,
Shines morning-bright through the Death-mists drawing near.

And radiant round his brow yet the hero-flame is gleaming,
And firm yet his footstep upon the reddened sod,
As with sword uplifted towards the day’s last beaming,
Forth goes the spirit of Cuchulain unto God.

Leaving to his land and the Celtic race forever
That which shall not fail them throughout the fading years,
Heritage of faith unchanged, of fear-undimmed endeavor,
And a quenchless laughter ringing down the edge of hostile spears.

GODS AND HEROES OF THE GAEL

BY ELEANOR ROGERS COX

Forth in shining phalanx marching from the shrouding mists of time,
Bright the sunlight on their foreheads, bright upon their golden
mail,
Lords of beauty, lords of valor, lords of Earth’s unconquered prime,
Come the gods, the kings, the heroes of the Gael.

Lugh, the splendor of whose shining lit the forest and the fen,
He whose smile at first illuming all the shadow-haunted space
Of the vast, primeval ranges, death-engirdled, shunned of men,
Over virgin seas to Erin led our race.

Mananaan, great lord of Ocean--he whose fair domain outspread
Wheresoever tides foam-flowered to the moon’s high mandate move,
Aengus, clothed in youth immortal, on immortal ardors fed,
Who of old in golden Brugh reigned lord of Love.

And his name a knightly pennon on the ramparts of the world,
And his fame a fire unfailing on Time’s utmost purple height,
Erin’s peerless gage of courage to the vaunting ages hurled--
Sunward evermore Cuchulain holds his flight.

They are coming with the silver speech of Erin on their lips;
The speech that once of all the mighty Celtic race made kin,
They are coming with the laughter that has known no age-eclipse,
They are coming with the songs beloved of Finn.

Yea, with gifts regenerating to all men of women born--
Flame of courage that shall fade not, flame of truth that shall
not fail,
To the music of a thousand harps they’re marching through the Morn,
Deathless gods and kings and heroes of the Gael!

AT BENEDICTION

BY ELEANOR ROGERS COX

Joy, beauty, awe, supremest worship blending
In one long breath of perfect ecstasy,
Song from our hearts to God’s own Heart ascending,
The mortal merged in immortality.
There, veiled beneath that sacramental whiteness,
The wonder that all wonders doth transcend,
The Word that kindled chaos into brightness,
Our Lord, our God, our origin, our end.

Light, light, a sea of light, unshored, supernal,
Is all about our finite being spread,
Deep, soundless waves of harmonies eternal
Their balm celestial on our spirits shed.
O Source of Life! O Fount of waters living!
O Love, to whom all powers of mind and soul,
We give, and find again within the giving,
Of Thee renewed, made consecrate and whole.

PRIMROSE HILL

BY OLIVE CUSTANCE

Wild heart in me that frets and grieves,
Imprisoned here against your will ...
Sad heart that dreams of rainbow wings ...
See! I have found some golden things!
The poplar trees on Primrose Hill
With all their shining play of leaves ...
And London like a silver bride,
That will not put her veil aside!

Proud London like a painted Queen,
Whose crown is heavy on her head ...
City of sorrow and desire,
Under a sky of opal fire,
Amber and amethyst and red ...
And how divine the day has been!
For every dawn God builds again
This world of beauty and of pain....

Wild heart that hungers for delight,
Imprisoned here against your will;
Sad heart, so eager to be gay!
Loving earth’s lovely things ... the play
Of wind and leaves on Primrose Hill ...
Or London dreaming of the night ...
Adventurous heart, on beauty bent,
That only Heaven could quite content!

TWILIGHT

BY OLIVE CUSTANCE

Spirit of Twilight, through your folded wings
I catch a glimpse of your averted face,
And rapturous on a sudden, my soul sings
“Is not this common earth a holy place?”

Spirit of Twilight, you are like a song
That sleeps, and waits a singer,--like a hymn
That God finds lovely and keeps near Him long,
Till it is choired by aureoled cherubim.

Spirit of Twilight, in the golden gloom
Of dreamland dim I sought you, and I found
A woman sitting in a silent room
Full of white flowers that moved and made no sound.

These white flowers were the thoughts you bring to all,
And the room’s name is Mystery where you sit,
Woman whom we call Twilight, when night’s pall
You lift across our Earth to cover it.

TO A THRUSH

BY T. A. DALY

Sing clear, O! throstle,
Thou golden-tongued apostle
And little brown-frocked brother
Of the loved Assisian!
Sing courage to the mother,
Sing strength into the man,
For they, who in another May
Trod Hope’s scant wine from grapes of pain,
Have tasted in thy song to-day
The bitter-sweet red lees again.
To them in whose sad May-time thou
Sang’st comfort from thy maple bough,
To tinge the presaged dole with sweet,
O! prophet then, be prophet now
And paraclete!

That fateful May! The pregnant vernal night
Was throbbing with the first faint pangs of day,
The while with ordered urge toward life and light,
Earth-atoms countless groped their destined way;
And one full-winged to fret
Its tender oubliette,
The warding mother-heart above it woke,
Darkling she lay in doubt, then, sudden wise,
Whispered her husband’s drowsy ear and broke
The estranging seal of slumber from his eyes:
“My hour is nigh: arise!”

Already, when, with arms for comfort linked,
The lovers at an eastward window stood,
The rosy day, in cloudy swaddlings, blinked
Through misty green new-fledged in Wister Wood.
Breathless upon this birth
The still-entranced earth
Seemed brooding, motionless in windless space.
Then rose thy priestly chant, O! holy bird!
And heaven and earth were quickened with its grace;
To tears two wedded souls were moved who heard,
And one, unborn, was stirred!

O! Comforter, enough that from thy green
Hid tabernacle in the wood’s recess
To those care-haunted lovers thou, unseen,
Should’st send thy flame-tipped song to cheer and bless.
Enough for them to hear
And feel thy presence near;
And yet when he, regardful of her ease,
Had led her back by brightening hall and stair
To her own chamber’s quietude and peace,
One maple-bowered window shook with rare,
Sweet song--and thou wert there!

Hunter of souls! the loving chase so nigh
Those spirits twain had never come before.
They saw the sacred flame within thine eye;
To them the maple’s depths quick glory wore,
As though God’s hand had lit
His altar-fire in it,
And made a fane, of virgin verdure pleached,
Wherefrom thou might’st in numbers musical
Expound the age-sweet words thy Francis preached
To thee and thine, of God’s benignant thrall
That broodeth over all.

And they, athirst for comfort, sipped thy song,
But drank not yet thy deeper homily.
Not yet, but when parturient pangs grew strong,
And from its cell the young soul struggled free--
A new joy, trailing grief,
A little crumpled leaf,
Blighted before it burgeoned from the stem--
Thou, as the fabled robin to the rood,
Wert minister of charity to them;
And from the shadows of sad parenthood
They heard and understood.

Makes God one soul a lure for snaring three?
Ah! surely; so this nursling of the nest,
This teen-touched joy, ere birth anoint of thee,
Yet bears thy chrismal music in her breast.
Five Mays have come and sped
Above her sunny head,
And still the happy song abides in her.
For though on maimed limbs the body creeps,
It doth a spirit house whose pinions stir
Familiarly the far cerulean steeps
Where God His mansion keeps.

So come, O! throstle,
Thou golden-tongued apostle
And little brown-frocked brother
Of the loved Assisian!
Sing courage to the mother,
Sing strength into the man,
That she who in another May
Came out of heaven, trailing care,
May never know that sometimes gray
Earth’s roof is and its cupboards bare.
To them in whose sad May-time thou
Sang’st comfort and thy maple bough,
To tinge the presaged dole with sweet,
O! prophet then, be prophet now
And paraclete!

TO A PLAIN SWEETHEART

BY T. A. DALY

I love thee, dear, for what thou art,
Nor would I wish thee otherwise,
For when thy lashes lift apart
I read, deep-mirrored in thine eyes,
The glory of a modest heart.

Wert thou as fair as thou art good,
It were not given to any man,
With daring eyes of flesh and blood,
To look thee in the face and scan
The splendor of thy womanhood.

TO A ROBIN

BY T. A. DALY

I heard thee, joyous votary,
Pour forth thy heart in one
Sweet simple strain of melody
To greet the rising sun,
When he across the morning’s verge his first faint flare had flung
And found the crimson of thy breast the whisp’ring leaves among,
In thine own tree
Which sheltered thee,
Thy mate, thy nest, thy young.

I marked thee, sorrow’s votary,
When in the noon of day
Young vandals stormed thy sacred tree
And bore thine all away;
The notes of grief that rent thy breast touched kindred chords in
mine,
For memories of other days, though slumbering still confine
In mine own heart
The bitter smart
Of sorrow such as thine.

I hear thee now, sweet votary,
Beside thy ruined nest,
Lift up thy flood of melody
Against the crimsoned west,
Forgetful of all else in this, thy one sweet joyous strain.
I thank thee for this ecstasy of my remembered pain;
Thou liftest up
My sorrow’s cup
To sweeten it again.

THE POET

BY T. A. DALY

The truest poet is not one
Whose golden fancies fuse and run
To moulded phrases, crusted o’er
With flashing gems of metaphor;
Whose art, responsive to his will,
Makes voluble the thoughts that fill
The cultured windings of his brain,
Yet takes no soundings of the pain,
The joy, the yearnings of the heart
Untrammeled by the bonds of art,
O! poet truer far than he
Is such a one as you may be,
When in the quiet night you keep
Mute vigil on the marge of sleep.

If then, with beating heart, you mark
God’s nearer presence in the dark,
And musing on the wondrous ways
Of Him who numbers all your days,
Pay tribute to Him with your tears
For joys, for sorrows, hopes and fears
Which he has blessed and given to you,
You are the poet, great and true.
For there are songs within the heart
Whose perfect melody no art
Can teach the tongue of man to phrase.
These are the songs His poets raise,
When in the night they keep
Mute vigil on the marge of sleep.

OCTOBER

BY T. A. DALY

Come, forsake your city street!
Come to God’s own fields and meet October.
Not the lean, unkempt and brown
Counterfeit that haunts the town,
Pointing, like a thing of gloom,
At dead summer in her tomb;
Reading in each fallen leaf
Nothing but regret and grief.
Come out, where, beneath the blue,
You may frolic with the true October.

Call his name and mark the sound,
Opulent and full and round: “October.”
Come, and gather from his hand
Lavish largesse of the land;
Read in his prophetic eyes,
Clear as skies of paradise,
Not of summer days that died,
But of summer fructified!
Hear, O soul, his message sweet.
Come to God’s own fields and meet October.

SORROW

BY AUBREY DE VERE

Count each affliction, whether light or grave,
God’s messenger sent down to thee; do thou
With courtesy receive him; rise and bow;
And, ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave
Permission first His heavenly feet to lave;
Then lay before Him all thou hast; allow
No cloud or passion to usurp thy brow,
Or mar thy hospitality; no wave
Of mortal tumult to obliterate
Thy soul’s marmoreal calmness. Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate;
Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free;
Strong to consume small troubles; to commend
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end.

HUMAN LIFE

BY AUBREY DE VERE

Sad is our youth, for it is ever going,
Crumbling away beneath our very feet;
Sad is our life, for onward it is flowing,
In current unperceived because so fleet;
Sad are our hopes, for they were sweet in sowing,
But tares, self-sown, have overtopped the wheat;
Sad are our joys, for they were sweet in blowing;
And still, O still, their dying breath is sweet;
And sweet is youth, although it hath bereft us
Of that which made our childhood sweeter still;
And sweeter our life’s decline, for it hath left us
A nearer Good to cure an older Ill;
And sweet are all things, when we learn to prize them
Not for their sake, but His who grants them or denies them.

CARDINAL MANNING

BY AUBREY DE VERE

I learn’d his greatness first at Lavington:
The moon had early sought her bed of brine,
But we discours’d till now each starry sign
Had sunk: our theme was one and one alone:
“Two minds supreme,” he said, “our earth has known;
One sang in science; one served God in song;
Aquinas--Dante.” Slowly in me grew strong
A thought, “These two great minds in him are one;
‘Lord, what shall this man do?’” Later at Rome
Beside the dust of Peter and of Paul
Eight hundred mitred sires of Christendom
In Council sat. I mark’d him ’mid them all;
I thought of that long night in years gone by
And cried, “At last my question meets reply.”

SONG

BY AUBREY DE VERE

Seek not the tree of silkiest bark
And balmiest bud,
To carve her name while yet ’tis dark
Upon the wood!
The world is full of noble tasks
And wreaths hard won:
Each work demands strong hearts, strong hands,
Till day is done.

Sing not that violet-veined skin,
That cheek’s pale roses,
The lily of that form wherein
Her soul reposes!
Forth to the fight, true man! true knight!
The clash of arms
Shall more prevail than whisper’d tale,
To win her charms.

The Warrior for the True, the Right,
Fights in Love’s name;
The love that lures thee from that flight
Lures thee to shame:
That love which lifts the heart, yet leaves
The spirit free,--
That love, or none, is fit for one
Man-shap’d like thee.

THE SONS OF PATRICK

BY JAMES B. DOLLARD

Into the mists of the Pagan island
Bearing God’s message great Patrick came;
The Druid altars on plain and highland
Fell at the sound of his mighty name!

Swift was the conquest--with hearts upswelling
The Faith they took, and to God they swore:
That precious spark from their bosoms’ dwelling,
Man’s guile or torture should snatch no more.

And ever since, while the wide world wonders
This steadfast people their strength reveal,
As Time Earth’s kingdoms and empires sunders,
They stand by Patrick in ranks of steel!

The nations mock them, like Christ’s tormentors;
“Descend,” they cry, “from your cross of shame;
Abjure the Faith--see the road that enters
The groves of pleasure and wealth and fame!”

Like those that passed where the Cross rose dimly
Their wise beards wagging--“What fools!” they say;
But the Sons of Patrick make answer grimly:
“Our God we’ve chosen--the price we’ll pay.

“Ever about us the foes’ commotion,
The anguish sweat on our brows ne’er dry;
Our martyr’s bones strew the land and ocean,
Lone deserts echo our exiles’ cry.

“Unto our hearts is earth’s pride forbidden,
Unto our hands is its gold denied;
We do not question the Purpose hidden--
Let Him who fashioned our souls decide!

“Yet though once more to us choice were given,
And the long aeons were backward rolled,
We’d walk again before Earth and Heaven
The blood-stained pathway we walked of old!”

SONG OF THE LITTLE VILLAGES

BY JAMES B. DOLLARD

The pleasant little villages that grace the Irish glynns
Down among the wheatfields--up amid the whins,
The little white-walled villages crowding close together,
Clinging to the Old Sod in spite of wind and weather:
Ballytarsney, Ballymore, Ballyboden, Boyle,
Ballingarry, Ballymagorry by the Banks of Foyle,
Ballylaneen, Ballyporeen, Bansha, Ballysadare,
Ballybrack, Ballinalack, Barna, Ballyclare.

The cozy little villages that shelter from the mist,
Where the great West Walls by ocean spray are kissed;
The happy little villages that cuddle in the sun
When blackberries ripen and the harvest work is done.
Corrymeela, Croaghnakeela, Clogher, Cahirciveen,
Cappaharoe, Carrigaloe, Cashel and Coosheen,
Castlefinn, Carrigtohill, Crumlin, Clara, Clane,
Carrigaholt, Carrigaline, Cloghjordan and Coolrain.

The dreamy little villages, where by the fires at night,
Old Sanachies with ghostly tale the boldest hearts affright;
The crooning of the wind-blast is the wailing Banshee’s cry,
And when the silver hazels stir they say the fairies sigh,
Kilfenora, Kilfinnane, Kinnity, Killylea,
Kilmoganny, Kiltamagh, Kilronan and Kilrea,
Killashandra, Kilmacow, Killiney, Killashee,
Killenaule, Killmyshall, Killorglin and Killeagh.

Leave the little villages, o’er the black sea go,
Learn the stranger’s welcome, learn the exile’s woe,
Leave the little villages, but think not to forget,
Afar they’ll rise before your eyes to rack your bosoms yet.
Moneymore, Moneygall, Monivea and Moyne,
Mullinahone, Mullinavatt, Mullagh and Mooncoin,
Shanagolden, Shanballymore, Stranorlar and Slane,
Toberaheena, Toomyvara, Tempo and Strabane.

On the Southern Llanos,--north where strange light gleams,
Many a yearning exile sees them in his dreams;
Dying voices murmur (passed all pain and care),
“Lo, the little villages, God has heard our prayer.”
Lisdoonvarna, Lissadil, Lisdargan, Lisnaskea,
Portglenone, Portarlington, Portumna, Portmagee,
Clondalkin and Clongowan, Cloondara and Clonae,
God bless the little villages and guard them night and day!

THE SOUL OF KARNAGHAN BUIDHE

BY JAMES B. DOLLARD

It was the soul of Karnaghan Buidhe
Left his lips with a groan.
Like arrowy lightning bolt released
It sprang to the Judgment throne.

Spoke the Judge: “For as many years
As the numbered drops of the sea
I grant you heaven--but thenceforth hell,
Your bitter lot shall be.”

Prayed the soul of Karnaghan Buidhe
(_The trembling soul of Karnaghan Buidhe_)
“Dear Lord, who died on Calvary,
Too brief that span of heaven for me.”

Then spoke the Lord: “For as many years
As numbered sands on the shore,
The joys of heaven I give--but thence
You’ll see my face no more.”

Pleaded the soul of Karnaghan Buidhe
(_The shuddering soul of Karnaghan Buidhe_)
“Blessed Lord who died on the shameful tree,
Too brief that span of heaven for me.”

Once more the Judge: “The blades of grass
That earth-winds ever blew
A year of heaven I’ll count for each
Till hell shall yawn for you.”

Prayed the soul of Karnaghan Buidhe
(_The anguished soul of Karnaghan Buidhe_)
“Kind Lord, who died in agony,
Too brief that spell of heaven for me.

But this I ask, O Christ--a year
Of hell for each of these:
The blades of grass, the grains of sand,
The drops that make the seas!
And after this, sweet Lord, with Thee
In heaven for all eternity!”

Spoke the Judge, and His smile of love
Gladdened the waiting choir above:
“Sin and sorrow forever past,
Heaven I grant you, first and last!”

THE ANGELIC CHORUS

BY D. J. DONAHOE

At midnight from the zenith burst a light
More radiant and more beautiful than dawn,
And the meek shepherds on the shadowy lawn
Gazed upward in mute wonder on the sight;
The stars sank back in pallor, and the skies
Trembled responsive to rich harmonies.

And lo! an angel spake, “Be not afraid!
I bear glad tidings; for this happy morn
A Saviour and a King to man is born;
He sleepeth in a manger lowly laid.”
Then rolled along the heavens the glad refrain;
“Glory to God on high and peace to men!”

Soon from the skies the streaming light was gone,
And Night and Silence rested on the hill;
But the mute shepherds, looking upward still,
Could hear the heavenly echoes rolling on.
So evermore the listening world can hear
The Angelic Chorus ringing sweet and clear.

LADYE CHAPEL AT EDEN HALL

BY ELEANOR C. DONNELLY