Collected Works (Vol. I)

IN THE HOUR BEFORE REVOLT 219 A helinet flames forth on his forehead, Gold sparks from the forge of the stars, His shield with the Gorgon made horrid Hath blood on its bull-battled bars— Thou God of me, Mars ! He strides through the vibrating aether ; Spurns earth from His warrior feet ; Shakes fire from the forges beneath her ; His glances are fervid and fleet. With a cry that makes tremble the thunder, Light-speared, with a sword that is flame, He bursts the vast spaces asunder. His angels arise and proclaim : The Lord is His Name! O Lord! Thou didst march out of Edom! Thou leapedst from the Mountains of Seir! The breath of hy voice was as Freedom ! The nations did tremble with fear. The heathen, their fury forsook them ; The Moabites trembled and fled. O Lord, when Thy countenance shook them, Thy voice in the House of the Dead. O Lord! Thou hast said ! The lightnings were kindled and lightened, Thy thunder was heard on the deep; The stars with Thy Fear shook and whitened, The sun and the moon in the steep. The sea rose in tumult and clamour, The earth also shook with Thee then, As Thor had uplifted his hammer, And smitten the mulinous men. O! rise Thou again ! The voice of the Lord is uplifted; The wilderness also obeys ; The flames of the fire they are rifted ; The waves of the sea know His ways. The cedars of Lebanon hear Thee, The desert of Kadesh hath known ; The Sons of Men know Thee and fear Thee, Flee far from the Light of Thy Throne. For Thou art alone. O Lord! Is Thy path in the Water, The marvellous ways of the Deep? Not there, O not there! Wilt Thou slaughter Oblivion’s sons in their sleep? Ilath the deep disobeyed Thee or risen In wrath and revolt to Thy sky, Broken loose from the bands of her prison? Held counsel against the Most High? Yea, even as [! But I, O Most Mighty, invoke Thee, Whose footsteps are in the Unknown. My cries were the cries that awoke Thee, Upstarting in arms from Thy Throne! I call Thee, I pray Thee, I chide Thee, Whose glory my foes have abhorred. My spirit is fixed, may abide Thee, Awake the Invisible Sword. For Thou art the Lord ! Look down upon earth and behold us Few folk who have sworn to be free. Past days, when the traitors had sold us, We trample ; we call upon Thee ! Look Thou on the armed ones, the furious, The Saxons! they brandish the steel ; Heaven rings with their insults injurious ; Earth moans for their harrow and wheel. To Thee we appeal. They boast, though their triumph Hell’s gift is, On Africa’s desperate sons : ‘Qur thousands have conquered their fifties; Our twenties have murdered their ones.” That glory—that shame —let them trumpet To Europe’s unquickening ear. List Thou to the boast of the strumpet ! Lend Thou, Thou indignant, an ear ! Then—shall they not fear? O Lord, to Thy strength in the thunder, Thy chariot-wheels in the war, We, Ireland, look upward and wonder, The Sword of Thee smiting before.