Poems by Speranza

MY COUNTRY, wounded to the heart,

Could I but flash along thy soul

Electric power to rive apart

The thunder-clouds that round thee roll,

And, by my burning words, uplift

Thy life from out Death's icy drift,

Till the full splendours of our age

Shone round thee for thy heritage—

As Miriam's, by the Red Sea strand

Clashing proud cymbals, so my hand

Would strike thy harp,

Loved Ireland!

She flung her triumphs to the stars

In glorious chants for freedom won,

While over Pharaoh's gilded cars

The fierce, death-bearing waves rolled on;

I can but look in God's great face,

And pray Him for our fated race,

To come in Sinai thunders down,

And, with His mystic radiance, crown

Some Prophet-Leader, with command

To break the strength of Egypt's band,

And set thee free,

Loved Ireland!

New energies, from higher source,

Must make the strong life-currents flow,

As Alpine glaciers in their course

Stir the deep torrents 'neath the snow.

The woman's voice dies in the strife

Of Liberty's awakening life;

We wait the hero heart to lead,

The hero, who can guide at need,

And strike with bolder, stronger hand,

Though towering hosts his path withstand

Thy golden harp,

Loved Ireland!

For I can breathe no trumpet call,

To make the slumb'ring Soul arise;

I only lift the funeral-pall,

That so God's light might touch thine eyes,

And ring the silver prayer-bell clear,

To rouse thee from thy trance of fear;

Yet, if thy mighty heart has stirred,

Even with one pulse-throb at my word,

Then not in vain my woman's hand

Has struck thy gold harp while I stand,

Waiting thy rise

Loved Ireland!