England and Yesterday

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</SPAN></span> <h2>COLUMBA AND THE STORK.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The cliffs of Iona were red, with the moon to lee,</div> <div class="verse">A finger of rock in the infinite wind and the sea;</div> <div class="verse">And white on the cliffs as a volley of spray down-flying,</div> <div class="verse">The beautiful stork of Eiré indriven and dying.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I stole from the choir; I fed him, I bathed his breast,</div> <div class="verse">Till in late sunshine he lifted his wing to the west.</div> <div class="verse">Oh, the bells of the Abbey were calling clearer and bolder,</div> <div class="verse">And I feared the pale admonishing face at my shoulder.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Columb the saint’s! but I said, with mine arm in air,</div> <div class="verse">(Of that banished body and homesick spirit aware,)</div> <div class="verse">“The bird is of Eiré; out of the storm I bore him;</div> <div class="verse">And lo, he is free, with the valleys of Eiré before him.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Of the man that was Eiré-born, and in exile yet,</div> <div class="verse">This the reproach I had, and cannot forget,</div> <div class="verse">This the reproach I had, and never another:</div> <div class="verse">“Blessed art thou, to have lightened the heart of my brother!”</div> </div></div> </div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />