 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
XI. ON THE CONSECRATION OF ST. PATRICK'S NEW CATHEDRAL AT ARMAGH.
August 24, 1873.
This day the crime of ages stands reversed:
This day, re-risen, in saintlier sovereignty
Saint Patrick's towers invoke their native sky,
His second Temple lordlier than his first:
Orient once more, a vanished Hope hath burst
From night's black realm: in Stygian pageantry
The stormy wrecks of Penal years go by
Like ghosts remanded to their realms accurst.
Ho, Watcher on the summits! cry aloud,
How speeds the dawn? What promise gilds the East?
A Voice responds—thy voice, great Patriarch-Priest,
‘I see a Race baptized as in the cloud:
I see a Nation round an Altar bowed:
I see God's People share His Marriage Feast.’
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |