ODE OF WELCOME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 27, 24 October 1884, Page 5

ODE OF WELCOME.

by one of the students on the visit of the Archbishop of Sydney some weeks ago to St. Aloysms' College, Surrey Hills :— Incessant over Europe sounds The crash and din of arms : Barbarian hosts from farthest bounds Spread wide war's fierce alarms. In vain broad streams their tide oppose As barrier to advancing foes— Rhine, later, brawling Don ; , Ad ill besteads huge mountain chain, Alp, Hcemus lift their peaks in vain : Unnumbered swarms press on. Must then the Eternal City fall ? Must Rome's great empire die ? Mast she who towered o'er nations all A ghastly ruin lie? Why sleeps, or strikes but not to save, The sword that erst o'er land and wave Triumphant flashed and free 1 That smote Epirot warrior king, Changed Cannae to avenging ring, And held the world in fee ? Shall letters, arts, and all that form Man's glory and delight, The thoughts that glow, the words that warm, Be quenched in endless night? The thunders of great Tully's tongue, The varied lute that Flaccus strung, ' The gentle Mantuan's lay, With Livy's ever-shifting hues And all the offspring of the Muse Be lost in long decay ? No ! far remote by Thule's seas, Lies calm a holy isle : Beneath the soft Atlantic breeze Her verdant pastures smile. The fleets of once imperial Rome Had furrowed not the glancing foam That laves her sunny coasts, Nor now, that Rome has passed away, • Shall this fair isle become the prey Of fierce barbaric hosts. The foot revered of saint and sage This holy land has trod : The sacred Book, the learned page, Adorn her cloistered sod.. Though spoil and rapine waste the world, Though war's red banner floats unfurled, Hera stands one sacred shrine Wlere virtue, science, all that can Uplift, console, ennoble man, In the light undimmed shall shine. From Borne our sire illustrious brought Christ's Gospel to that beach ; On Irish soil St. Patrick taught What Peter bade him teach. In turn, the Isle of Saints shall be A beacon, 'mid the raging sea, Conspicuous from afar — To distant shores, to heathen bands, To Pagan and benighted strands A solitary star. As bursts upon the mirror bright The snn's surpassing blaze, •He flings in countless lines of light Abroad, afar, his rays ; So fell upon fair Ireland's face The beams of faith, and hope, and grace, So brilliant shone and burned. Then o'er the nations drear and dark The splendours of that glowing spark With radiance glad returned. The German forests, lone and deep, The fair fields of the Gaul, The Switzer on his mountain steep, Heard sacred footsteps fall, * The footfall of the saintly band, That haste from old lar-innis land To visit every soil. Their voice was raised, their blood was spilled, On earth what region is not filled I With tokens of our toil ? J In later timeß, 'mid Eastern wave On new-discovered land, The Cross, that can protect and save, Waß reared by Irish hand.

Towards that same shore, from Rome's high seat A Pastor bends his beauteous ieet, For beauteous sure are they, Who o'er the mountains or the brine The tidings good, the truths divine, To filial hearts convey. Then welcome to Australian shore Be this beloved sire. From Kieran, Canice, ancient Nore, He brings the sacred fire That burned of old in Irish heart, That never, never shall depart From boss of Irish race. Where hearts o'erflow, words well may fail. With joy, with hape, with love we hail Thy presence and thy Grace.