SCENE VIII.
Denis Florence MacCarthy translation
The "Athenaeum", in its elaborate review of the earlier translation of this drama, thus writes:—
"With the prayer of St. Patrick considerable licence has been taken; but its spirit is well preserved, and the translator's poetry must be admired.
"PATRICK. Thou art of all created things, O Lord, the essence and the cause — The source and centre of all bliss; What are those veils of woven light, Where sun and moon and stars unite — The purple morn, the spangled night — But curtains which thy mercy draws Between the heavenly world and this? The terrors of the sea and land — When all the elements conspire, The earth and water, storm and fire — Are but the shadows of thy hand; Do they not all in countless ways — The lightning's flash — the howling storm — The dread volcano's awful blaze — Proclaim thy glory and thy praise? Beneath the sunny summer showers Thy love assumes a milder form, And writes its angel name in flowers; The wind that flies with winged feet Around the grassy gladdened earth, Seems but commissioned to repeat In echo's accents — silvery sweet — That thou, O Lord, didst give it birth. There is a tongue in every flame — There is a tongue in every wave — To these the bounteous Godhead gave These organs but to praise his name! O mighty Lord of boundless space, Here canst thou be both sought and found — For here in everything around, Thy presence and thy power I trace. With Faith my guide and my defence, I burn to serve in love and fear; If as a slave, Oh, leave me here! If not, O Lord, remove me hence!" The "Athenaeum", Oct. 26, 1853.