Canto 5Hic Jacet
Book 1. Part One - England and Baroda 1883 – 1898
Songs to Myrtilla
Charles Stewart Parnell
O pale and guiding light, now star unsphered,
Deliverer lately hailed, since by our lords
5Most feared, most hated, hated because feared,
Who smot’st them with an edge surpassing swords!
Thou too wert then a child of tragic earth,
Since vainly filled thy luminous doom of birth.
Hic Jacet
10Glasnevin Cemetery
Patriots, behold your guerdon. This man found
Erin, his mother, bleeding, chastised, bound,
Naked to imputation, poor, denied,
While alien masters held her house of pride.
15And now behold her! Terrible and fair
With the eternal ivy in her hair,
Armed with the clamorous thunder, how she stands
Like Pallas’ self, the Gorgon in her hands.
True that her puissance will be easily past,
20The vision ended; she herself has cast
Her fate behind her: yet the work not vain
Since that which once has been may be again,
And she this image yet recover, fired
With godlike workings, brain and hands inspired,
25So stand, the blush of battle on her cheek,
Voice made armipotent, deeds that loudly speak,
Like some dread Sphinx, half patent to the eye,
Half veiled in formidable secrecy.
And he who raised her from her forlorn life
30Loosening the fountains of that mighty strife,