James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
June 9Saint Columba
By Lionel Johnson (18671902)
D
Gleams with a lighting of strange fires.
They flash and run, they leap and march,
Signs of a Saint’s fulfilled desires.
Sceptred with Mary lilies, shod
With angel flames, and girded round
With white of snow, he goes to God.
The oakwoods of their Inisfail;
Where the white angels hovering be,
And, ah, the birds in every vale!
Iona of the angry sea!
Gone, the white glories of thy snow,
And white spray flying over thee!
From seaworn rocks and seabird’s cries,
Columba hails the morning star,
That shines in never nighted skies.
He listens to the chaunting air;
The Land, where music is not born,
For music is eternal there.
He lauds the Lover of the Gael;
Sweet Christ! whom Patrick’s children own;
Glory be Thine from Inisfail!