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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CONSECRATED LAND |
 | Ireland for the Irish |  |
CONSECRATED LAND
The consecrated land!—
Our fathers' and, alas! our children's grave:
Growing from out their hearts the wild flowers wave
O'er that dear earth, and on it yet doth stand
The poor man's shrine.
What prince dare lay his hand
On this, and say “'Tis mine”?
Our fathers' and, alas! our children's grave:
Growing from out their hearts the wild flowers wave
O'er that dear earth, and on it yet doth stand
The poor man's shrine.
What prince dare lay his hand
On this, and say “'Tis mine”?
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Is not our martyrs' earth
Held sacred too?—not merely the low ditch
Where kings can fling them, but the wide land which
Should be more than the grave-stone of their worth.
Where Emmett and Fitzgerald trod,—
What peer can own that earth?
None—none but God.
Held sacred too?—not merely the low ditch
Where kings can fling them, but the wide land which
Should be more than the grave-stone of their worth.
Where Emmett and Fitzgerald trod,—
What peer can own that earth?
None—none but God.
The “consecrated” soil!—
Is not the round earth God's,—his sacred field,
Where Man may learn celestial arms to wield,
And grow divine through sanctity of toil?
What landlord dare
To dispossess God's seed? what power shall spoil
Those whom God planted there?
Is not the round earth God's,—his sacred field,
Where Man may learn celestial arms to wield,
And grow divine through sanctity of toil?
What landlord dare
To dispossess God's seed? what power shall spoil
Those whom God planted there?
| Ireland for the Irish | |