The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick. Various

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      For asked they the saint to make haste

       And Letavia's wide lands desert,

       That from error's dark ways Eire's men

       He might in life's pathways direct.

X.

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      Foretold Eire's seers years of peace,

       Which were to remain through all time;

       But the grandeurs of Tara the proud

       Were to vanish in dust, as earth's slime.

XI.

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      To Leary, the monarch, Druids told

       Of the advent of Patrick the saint;

       And their visions were true, as we know

       From the facts which his histories paint.

XII.

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      Renowned was Saint Patrick through life,

       And of error he was a dire foe;

       Hence for ever his name shall be grand

       Among the nations, as ages shall flow.

XIII.

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      The Apocalypse sang he, and hymns,

       And three fifty full psalms, day by day;

       He instructed and praised and baptized,

       And all time he continued to pray.

XIV.

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      Nor could any cold e'er prevent

       That he stayed in the water o'er nights;

       And to gain the grand kingdom of heaven,

       Through the day he used preach on the heights.

XV.

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      By the far-famous fount of the North,

       Benibarka! thy waters sha'n't cease;

       For a hundred full psalms he used sing

       Each night the Lord's praise to increase.

XVI.

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      Then he slept on a cold bed of stone,

       And with a wet cover was dressed;

       A stone was his pillow each night--

       Such, such was the saint's nightly rest.

XVII.

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      To the people the Gospel was preached,

       With power and with miracles signed;

       The blind and the lepers were cured,

       And Death his dead subjects resigned.

XVIII.

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      Saint Patrick did preach to the Scots,

       And in Letavia much he endured,

       That whom he had won to the Lord

       In Judgment's dread day be secured.

XIX.

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      Emir's and proud Erimon's sons

       A demon contrived to ensnare;

       And them did dread Satan engulf

       In the dark, fearful depths of his lair,

XX.

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      Until our apostle arrived,

       Who rescued and set them all free,

       Through sixty long years of his life

       To Christ's cross the brave Fenians flee.

XXI.

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      Great darkness o'er Eire was spread,

       And its people their idols adored,

       Nor in the true Godhead believed,

       Nor the Trinity, too, of the Lord.

XXII.

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