THE SEASONS.
We greet Spring’s warm rain and sunshine,
The budding trees and flow’rs;
Summer’s blue skies so radiant,
Above the rose leaf bow’rs;
We greet Autumn as we harvest,
All efforts we have made;
Then Winter like the close of life,
Comes creeping in the shade.
LOVED MINSTREL OF ERIN.
Oh loved minstrel of Erin chant forth thy sweet lay,
All down through the ages you’ve sang,
From the first breath of dawn ere the mists rolled away,
Through Erin thy melodies rang;
For thy soul stirring themes of joy and of sorrow,
Inspire us with love and with zeal,
With hope in our hearts that the dawning tomorrow,
The sunburst of freedom reveal.
Of her glories, her triumphs, and her vict’ries sing,
Her art, learning, culture and songs,
Of brave hearts ever loyal to country and king,
On battle fields fighting her wrongs,
Yes, the wrongs of a nation down trodden forlorn,
For centuries long they have bled,
For the faith of their fathers, the cross they have borne,
And planted where ever they fled.
THE AVE’S, OR LIGHTS OF HOME.
In that land of haunting beauty,
Our Mary’s own sweet month of May,
In a thatched cottage years ago,
While the birds chirped in the hedgerows,
And the flowers were veiled in sleep,
Sweet Ave’s from fond hearts did flow.
In the shadows of the turf fire,
Several figures knelt in pray’r,
The soft breeze lingered by the door,
While the oft repeated Ave’s,
The sweet Hail Mary full of grace
Their beads they counted o’er and o’er.