Therefore, a youth of sixteen years, or less, With others of my land by pirates seized I stood on Erin’s shore. Our bonds were just; Our God we had forsaken, and His Law, And mocked His priests. Tending a stern man’s swine I trod those Dalaraida hills that face Eastward to Alba. Six long years went by; But—sent from God—Memory, and Faith, and Fear Moved on my spirit as winds upon the sea, And the Spirit of Prayer came down. Full many a day Climbing the mountain tops, one hundred times I flung upon the storm my cry to God. Nor frost, nor rain might harm me, for His love Burned in my heart. Through love I made my fast; And in my fasts one night I heard this voice, “Thou fastest well: soon shalt thou see thy Land.” Later, once more thus spake it: “Southward fly, Thy ship awaits thee.” Many a day I fled, And found the black ship dropping down the tide, And entered with those Gentiles by Thy grace Vanquished, though first they spurned me, and was free. It was Thy leading, Lord; the Hand was Thine! For now when, perils past, I walked secure, Kind greetings round me, and the Christian Rite, There rose a clamorous yearning in my heart, And memories of that land so far, so fair, And lost in such a gloom. And through that gloom The eyes of little children shone on me, So ready to believe! Such children oft Ran by me naked in and out the waves, Or danced in circles upon Erin’s shores, Like creatures never fallen! Thought of such Passed into thought of others. From my youth Both men and women, maidens most, to me As children seemed; and O the pity then To mark how oft they wept, how seldom knew Whence came the wound that galled them! As I walked, Each wind that passed me whispered, “Lo, that race Which trod thee down! Requite with good their ill! Thou know’st their tongue; old man to thee, and youth, For counsel came, and lambs would lick thy foot; And now the whole land is a sheep astray That bleats to God.”
Alone one night I mused, Burthened with thought of that vocation vast. O’er-spent I sank asleep. In visions then, Satan my soul plagued with temptation dire. Methought, beneath a cliff I lay, and lo! Thick-legioned demons o’er me dragged a rock, That falling, seemed a mountain. Near, more near, O’er me it blackened. Sudden from my heart This thought leaped forth: “Elias! Him invoke!” That name invoked, vanished the rock; and I, On mountains stood watching the rising sun, As stood Elias once on Carmel’s crest, Gazing on heaven unbarred, and that white cloud, A thirsting land’s salvation.