Chapter 1
Produced by Alan Earls
BALLADS OF PEACE IN WAR
By Michael Earls
HIS LIGHT
Gray mist on the sea, And the night coming down, She stays with sorrow In a far town.
He goes the sea-ways By channel lights dim, Her love, a true light, Watches for him.
They would be wedded On a fair yesterday, But the quick regiment Saw him away.
Gray mist in her eyes And the night coming down: He feels a prayer From a far town.
He goes the sea-ways, The land lights are dim; She and an altar light Keep watch for him.
THE COUNTERSIGN
Along Virginia's wondering roads While armies hastened on, To Beauregard's great Southern host, Manassas fields upon, Came Colonel Smith's good regiment, Eager for Washington.
But Colonel Smith must halt his men In a dangerous delay, Though well he knows the countryside To the distant host of grey. He cannot join with Beauregard For Bull Run's bloody fray.
And does he halt for storm or ford, Or does he stay to dine? Say, No! but death will meet his men, Onward if moves the line: He dares not hurry to Beauregard, Not knowing the countersign.
Flashed in the sun his waving sword; "Who rides for me?" he cried, "And ask of the Chief the countersign, Upon a daring ride; Though never the lad come back again With the good that will betide.
"I will send a letter to Beauregard," The Colonel slowly said; "The bearer dies at the pickets' line, But the letter shall be read When the pickets find it for the Chief, In the brave hand of the dead."
THE COUNTERSIGN
"Ready I ride to the Chief for the sign," Said little Dan O'Shea, "Though never I come from the picket's line, But a faded suit of grey: Yet over my death will the road be safe, And the regiment march away."
"In a mother's name, I bless thee, lad," The Colonel drew him near: "But first in the name of God," said Dan, "And then is my mother's dear-- Her own good lips that taught me well, With the Cross of Christ no fear."
Quickly he rode by valley and hill, On to the outpost line, Till the pickets arise by wall and mound, And the levelled muskets shine; "Halt!" they cried, "count three to death, Or give us the countersign."
Lightly the lad leaped from his steed, No fear was in his sigh, But a mother's face and a home he loved Under an Irish sky: He made the Sign of the Cross and stood, Bravely he stood to die.
Lips in a prayer at the blessed Sign, And calmly he looked around, And wonder seized his waiting soul To hear no musket sound, But only the pickets calling to him, Heartily up the mound.
For this was the order of Beauregard Around his camp that day-- The Sign of the Cross was countersign, (And a blessing to Dan O'Shea) And the word came quick to Colonel Smith For the muster of the grey.
A HILL O' LIGHTS
Turn from Kerry crossroads and leave the wooded dells, Take the mountain path and find where Tip O'Leary dwells; Tip O'Leary is the name, I sing it all day long, And every bird whose heart is wise will have it for a song.
Tip O'Leary keeps the lights of many lamps aglow, Little matters it to him the seasons come or go, Sure if spring is in the air his hedges are abloom, And fairy buds like candles shine across his garden room.
Roses in the June days are light the miles around, Tapers of the fuchsias move along the August ground, Sumachs light the flaming torches by October's grave And like the campfires on the hills the oaks and maples wave.
All the lights but only one die out when summer goes, One that Tip O'Leary keeps is brighter than the rose, Through the window comes the bloom on any winter night, And every sense goes wild to it, soft and sweet and bright.
Lamps are fair that have the light from flowers all day long, When the birds are here and sing the Tip O'Leary song, But a winter window is the fairest rose of all, When Tip O'Leary's hearth is lit and lamps upon the wall.
OFF TO THE WAR
(For Jack)
In a little ship and down the bay, Out to the calling sea, A young brave lad sailed off today, To the one great war went he: The one long war all men must know Greater than land or gold, Soul is the prince and flesh the foe Of a kingdom Christ will hold.
With arms of faith and hope well-wrought The brave lad went away, And the voice of Christ fills all his thought, Under two hands that pray: The tender love of a mother's hands That guarded all his years, Fitted the armor, plate and bands, And blessed them with her tears.
Older than Rhodes and Ascalon And the farthest forts of sea, Is the Master voice that calls him on From the hills in Galilee: From hills where Christ in gentle guise Called, as He calls again, With His heart of love and His love-lit eyes Unto His warrior men.
Christ with the brave young lad to-day Who goes to the sweet command, Strengthen his heart wherever the way, Whether he march or stand: And whether he die in a peaceful cell, Or alone in the lonely night, The Cross of Christ shall keep him well, And be his death's delight.
THE TOWERS OF HOLY CROSS
(For W. M. Letts)
The roads look up to Holy Cross, The sturdy towers look down, And show a kindly word to all Who pass by Worcester Town; And once you'd see the boys at play, Or marching cap and gown.
The gallant towers at Holy Cross Are silent night and day, A few young lads are left behind Who still may take their play; The Cross and Flag look out afar For them that went away.
And mine are gone, says Beaven Hall, To camps by hill and plain, And mine along by Newport Sea, Says the high tower of O'Kane; I follow mine, Alumni calls, Across the watery main.
Their sires were in the old Brigade That won at Fontenoy, Stood true at Washington's right hand, that were his faith and joy: From Holy Cross to Fredericksburg Is many a gallant boy.
Then God be with you, says the Cross, And the brave towers looking down; I'll be your cloth, sings out the Flag, For other cap and gown, And may we see you safe again, On the hills of Worcester Town.
ALWAYS MAYTIME
(for Gerry)
When May has spent its little song, And richer comes the June, Through former eyes the heart will long For May again in tune; Though large with promise hope may be, By future visions cast, Our memoried thoughts will yearn to see The happy little past.
And you, my loyal little friend, (From May to June you go), What years of loyalty attend Great comradeship we know; Yet joy have me in place of tears To see your road depart, For whether east or west your years, A friend stays home at heart.
Then gladly let the Springtime pass And Summer in its wake; Ahead are fields of flower and grass All fragrant for your sake: With hearts of joy we say farewell, With laughter, wave and nod, It's always May for us who dwell In seasons close to God.
THE STORYTELLER
Tim of the Tales they call me, With a welcome heart and hand; But little they hold my brother For all his cattle and land.
If I be walking the high road From Clare that goes to the sea, A troop of the young run leaping To gather a story from me.
Tim of the Tales, the folk say, Is known the world around, For children by taking his stories To their homes in foreign ground.
I pity my brother his fortunes, And how he sits alone, With the money that keeps his body, But leaves his heart a stone.
And sometimes do I be feeling A dream of death in my ear, And a heaven of children calling, "Tim of the Tales is here."
MY FATHER'S TUNES
My father had the gay good tunes, the like you'd seldom hear, A whole day could he whistle them, an' thin he'd up an' sing, The merry tunes an' twists o'them that suited all the year, An' you wouldn't ask but listen if yourself stood there a king. Early of a mornin' would he give "The Barefoot Boy" to us, An' later on "The Rocky Road" or maybe "Mountain Lark," "Trottin' to the Fair" was a liltin' heart of joy to us, An' whin we heard "The Coulin" sure the night was never dark.
An' what's the good o' foolish tunes, the moilin' folks 'ud say, It's better teach the children work an' get the crock o' gold; Thin sorra take their wisdom whin it makes them sad an' gray,-- A man is fitter have a song that never lets him old. A stave of "Gillan's Apples" or a snatch of "Come Along With Me" Will warm the cockles o' your heart, an' life will keep its prime. Yarra, gold is all the richer whin it's "Danny, sing a song for me" Or what's the good o' money if you're dead afore your time.
It's sense to do your turn o' work, it's healthy to be wise, An' have the little crock o' gold agin the day o' rain; But whin the ground is heaviest, your heart will feel the skies, If you know a little Irish song to lift the road o' pain. The learnin' an' the wealth we have are never sad an' gray with us, The dullest times in all the year are merry as the June: For we've the heart to up an' sing "Arise, an' come away with us," The way my father gave it, an' we laughin' in the tune.
A SONG
(For John McCormack)
June of the trees in glory, June of the meadows gay! O, and it works a story To tell an October day.
Blooms of the apple and cherry Toil for the far-off hours; Never is idleness merry, In song of the garden bowers.
Brooks to the sea from mountains, Yea, and from field and vine: Rain and the sun are fountains That gather for wheat and wine.
Cellar and loft shall glory, Table and hearth shall praise, Hearing October's story Of June and the merry days.
A BALLAD OF FRANCE
Ye who heed a nation's call And speed to arms therefor, Ye who fear your children's march To perils of the war,-- Soldiers of the deck and camp And mothers of our men, Hearken to a tale of France And tell it oft again.
* * *
In the east of France by the roads of war, (God save us evermore from Mars and Thor!) Up and down the fair land iron armies came, (Pity, Jesu, all who fell, calling Thy name).
Pleasant all the fields were round every town, Garden airs went sweetly up, heaven smiled down; Till under leaden hail with flaming breath, Graves and ashen harvest were the keep of death.
One little town stood, white on a hill, Chapel and hostel gates, farms and windmill, Chapel and countryside met the gunner's path, Till no blade of kindly grass hid from his wrath.
Lo! When the terrain cleared out of murky air, When mid the ruins stalked death and despair, One figure stood erect, bright with day,-- Christ the Crucified, though His Cross was shot away.
Flame and shot tore away all the tender wood, Yet with arms uplifted Christ His Figure stood; Out reached the blessing hands, meek bowed the head, Christ! The saving solace o'er the waste of dead.
France tells the story, make our hearts know well, Christ His Figure stands against the gates of hell: Flame and shot may rive the fortress walls apart, Christ the Crucified will heal the breaking heart.
Wear Him day and night, wherever be the war, (God save us evermore from Mars and Thor!) Flag and heart that keep Him fear not shot and flame, (Strengthen, Jesu, all who stand, calling Thy name).
* * *
Ye who guard a nation's call And speed to arms therefor, Ye who pray for brave lads gone To perils of the war; Soldiers of the fleet and fort And mothers of our men, In the shadow of the Cross Shall we find peace again.
TO ONE IN SUCCESS
A world's new faces greet you, Ten thousand quick with praise, But truer stay to meet you Old friends and other days: Let fickle changes hurt you, (The new go quick apart) One fame shall ne'er desert you In true hearts like this heart.
THE LIFELONG WAR
Still goes the strife; the anguish does not die. Stronger the flesh is grown from earthy years, In siege about my soul that upward peers To see and hold its Good. The spirit's eye Approves the better things; but senses spy The passing sweets, spurning the present fears, And take their moment's prize. Ah, then hot tears Deluge my soul, and contrite moans my cry!
Courage, my heart: bright patience to the end! Few years remain; then goes the warring wall Of sensely flesh, that men will throw to earth. So be it; so the contrite soul shall wend A homeward way unto the Captain's call, Eternally to know contrition's worth.
LINDEN LANE
HOLY CROSS: MAY, 1917
(For Major Joseph W. O'Connor, '03)
Birds are merry and the buds Come along with May: Lonely is the linden land For lads that went today.
What calls the May of song But the fair young spring? Heard our boys another tune Sterner voices sing.
Bugles blew by land and sea, And the tocsin drum; See, brave hearts go down the hill, Shouting, "Hail, we come."
From the towers that show the Cross, Staunch the Flag waved out, And the royal Purple shook Joyous with the shout.
Heigh-ho! And a lusty cheer, Down the linden lane: The pine grove looked but cannot tell If they'll come home again.
Few may take the homeward road When the war is done: Where they fall or when they come, Hail, to the cause they won.
Till the buds and the merry birds Come another May, Cross and Flag aloft shall bless Brave lads who went today.
THE BOUNDARIES OF A HOUSE
Along the north a mountain crest, A row of trees runs towards the west; The south is all a field for play, For work the east has marked a way; The night shows all the stars above, And the long, long day, a mother's love.
ATTAINMENT
Let me go back again. There is the road, O memory! The humble garden lane So young with me. Let me rebuild again The start of faith and hope by that abode; Amend with morning freshness all the code Of youth's desire; remap my chart's demesne With tuneful joy, and plan a far campaign For better marches in ambition's mode.
Ah, no, my heart! More certain now the skies For joy abide: the cage of tree and sod, Horizons firm that faith and hope attain, Far realms of innocence in children's eyes, And hearts harmonious with the will of God:-- These might I miss if I were back again.
THE PHILOSOPHERS
The best of true philosophers Are the children, after all,-- The children with laughing hearts And the serious field and ball: They have a bowl and bubbles, And hours where rainbows are; They find, if ever the sun is hid, In every dark a star.
But, O, the sorry men that make The wise books of our day! They cannot smile athwart a cloud, When black thoughts lead astray; They cannot add a simple sum, But talk like drunken men, And shut their eyes to keep out God When spring comes in again.
Far simpler than the Rule of Three Are the laws of earth and sky; Yet fools will muddle all true thought, And pride will have its cry; The banners with their deadly words Go reeling on unfurled, And sin and sadness march along To the heartbreak of the world.
THE PHILOSOPHERS
But the children are the wise men, With the clearest heart and mind; If two and one are three, they say, Then truth is near to find; If this be now that once was not, If things must have a cause, Then very simple is the sum That God is in His laws.
The world's men that are fools enough, They will not speak that way, But with a cloud of muddled thought They hide the light of day; Yet laughing words and candid truth Abide by field and hall, Where the best of true philosophers Are the children, after all.
PREPAREDNESS
I. THE DRUMMER BOY
You never know when war may come, And that is why I keep a drum: For if all sudden in the night From east or west came battle fright, And you were sound asleep in bed, And very soon to join the dead, You then would gladly wish my drum Would warn you that the war had come.
So that is why on afternoons I tell the neighborhood my tunes: Sometimes behind a fortress bench, Or where the hedges make a trench, I beat the drum with all my might, While people look with awful fright, Just as they would if war had come, And heard the warning of my drum.
They must be thankful, I am sure, Because they now may feel secure, And rest so safe and sound in bed, Without wild dreams of fearful dread; For now they hear me all the day, As round the yard I march and play, To let them know if war should come They'll get the warning of my drum.
II. THE SAILOR
A sailor that rides the ocean wave, And I in my room at home: Where are the seas I fear to brave, Or the lands I may not roam? At the attic window I take my stand, And tighten the curtain sail, Then, ahoy! I ride the leagues of land, Whether in calm or gale.
Tree at anchor along the road Bow as I speed along; At sunny brooks in the valley I load Cargoes of blossom and song; Stories I take on the passing wind From the plains and forest seas, And the Golden Fleece I yet will find, And the fruit of Hesperides.
Steady I keep my watchful eyes, As I range the thousand miles, Till evening tides in western skies Turn gold the cloudland isles; Then fast is the hatch and dark the screen, And I bring my cabin light; With a wink I change to a submarine And drop in the sea of Night.
WAR IN THE NORTH
Not from Mars and not from Thor Comes the war, the welcome war, Many months we waited for To free us from the bondage Of Winter's gloomy reign: Valor to our hope is bound, Songs of courage loud resound, Vowed is Spring to win her ground Through all our northern country, From Oregon to Maine.
All our loyal brave allies In the Southlands mobilize, Faith is sworn to our emprise, The scouting breezes whisper That help is sure today: Vanguards of the springtime rains Cannonade the hills and plains, Freeing them from Winter's chains, So birds and buds may flourish Around the throne of May.
Hark! and hear the clarion call Bluebirds give by fence and wall! Look! The darts of sunlight fall, And red shields of the robins Ride boldly down the leas; Hail! The cherry banners shine, Onward comes the battle line,-- On! White dogwood waves the sign, And exile troops of blossoms Are sailing meadow seas.
Winter's tyrant king retires; Spring leads on her legion choirs Where the hedges sound their lyres; The victor hills and valleys Ring merrily the tune: April cohorts guard the way For the great enthroning day, When the Princess of May Shall wed within our northlands The charming Prince of June.
THE HAPPY TIME
Two gloomy scenes may be, Or count you three: A building hope all crushed at morn, A bridal day in clouds of rain, And night that keeps a mother's pain For tidings of a child forlorn.
Of happy times count more, Admit these four: A flower of promise rich with day, A son with victories that wear A halo on his mother's way: And friends whose hearts ring like a chime Across the world at Christmas time.
THE TIME OF TRUCE
Two young lads from childhood up Drank together friendship's cup: Joe was glad with Bill at play, Bill was home to Joe alway.
On their friendship came the blight Of a little thoughtless fight; Then, alas! each passing day Farther bore these friends away.
There was grief in either heart, Bleeding deep from sorrow's dart, When in thoughtfulness again Each beheld the other's pain.
But the shades of night are furled When the morning takes the world, And the Christmas days of peace Make our little quarrels cease.
Bill and Joe on Christmas Day Met as in the olden way; Bill put out his hand to Joe,-- It was Christmas Day, you know.
Bill and Joe are friends again, And to them long years remain; Time may take them far away, They keep Christmas every day.
BETHLEHEM
O ye who sail Potomac's even tide To Vernon's shades, our Chieftain's hallowed mound; Or who at distant shrines high paeans sound In Alfred's cult, old England's morning pride; Or seek Versailles, conceited as a bride, With garish memories of kins strewn round; Or lay your spirit's cheek on Forum ground, For here a mighty Caesar lived and died: To these and other stones, O ye who speed, Since there, forsooth, a prince was passing great, More zealous let your heart's adoring heed The Child most Royal in a crib's estate. No poor so poor, no king more king than He: Come, better pilgrims, to this mystery.
A VOW-DAY FLOWER
(POVERTY, CHASTITY, OBEDIENCE)
Three little leaves like shamrock, And the trefoil's love-lit eyes, Whether it takes the sunshine Or the shadows from the skies.
And richer than rose or lily Is the flower he wears today, With triune bloom and fragrance From earth to heaven alway.
Poverty is the low leaf, And one is chastely white, And the red love of obedience Goes up to God a light.
Grow, good flower, and keep him Who wears your bloom today, Shadow and sunshine bless him, And the trefoil's heavenward way.
THE TREE IN THE TENEMENT YARD
(For T. A. Daly)
America, Ireland and Italy, All have known this poor old tree.
* * *
A rickety fence goes round the yard And the noisy streets stand high: The grassless ground is brown and hard, And the cinder pathways, lined with shard, Sees but a bit of sky.
Once the yard was fertile and fair, And lilac bushes near: And a Yankee counted with fretful care, Under the solacing shadows there, The gain of every year.
The crowded walls of trade arose And gloomed the avenue: But a Munster man at each day's close Built in the tree his hope's rainbows, And saw his dreams come true.
The years have thickened the darkened air, But the tree is still on guard: It comforts the young Italian there, Who sees the future blossoming fair From the tree in the tenement yard.
* * *
America, Ireland and Italy All have loved this poor old tree.
OLD HUDSON ROVERS
(For Joyce Kilmer)
When the dreamy night is on, up the Hudson river, And the sheen of modern taste is dim and far away, Ghostly men on phantom rafts make the waters shiver, Laughing in the sibilance of the silver spray. Yea, and up the woodlands, staunch in moonlit weather, Go the ghostly horsemen, adventuresome to ride, White as mist the doublet-braize, bandolier and feather, Fleet as gallant Robin Hood in an eventide.