Ireland for the Irish Rhymes and Reasons Against Landlordism with a Preface on Fenianism and Republicanism. By W. J. Linton, Formerly of the Irish "Nation" |
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SAINT PATRICK |
 | Ireland for the Irish |  |
SAINT PATRICK
Ho, good Saint Patrick! at our need
Come back to us again;
And rid us of the vermin breed
That still devour our grain.
For vainly clear'dst thou deepest bogs
Of all the noxious crew:
Those Frenchmen brought not only frogs,
But locust-landlords too.
Come back to us again;
And rid us of the vermin breed
That still devour our grain.
For vainly clear'dst thou deepest bogs
Of all the noxious crew:
Those Frenchmen brought not only frogs,
But locust-landlords too.
If it be true that types of life
Repeat themselves on earth,
And Worth in olden ages rife
Lives yet in later Worth,—
O Hero! modernize thee then,
The People's Chief to be;
And drive these swarms of Middlemen
Into the Irish Sea!
Repeat themselves on earth,
And Worth in olden ages rife
Lives yet in later Worth,—
O Hero! modernize thee then,
The People's Chief to be;
And drive these swarms of Middlemen
Into the Irish Sea!
So shall they read their word of fear,
Like witches' prayers, reversed;
And of themselves the country “clear,”
On their own malice hearsed.
“But should Saint Patrick nothing heed
“Our call?” Then I and you
Must move with all the greater speed
The saintly work to do.
Like witches' prayers, reversed;
And of themselves the country “clear,”
On their own malice hearsed.
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“Our call?” Then I and you
Must move with all the greater speed
The saintly work to do.
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