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The Shamrock
and Laurel
Author Rev. William McClure
There’s
a lofty love abounding
In the emblem of a land;
There’s fellowship confounding
The evil mind and hand;
In the token of a nation
In the flow’ret of a race
And a multiform oblation
Is uplifted by the grace
And patriotism of millions –
To the hearthstones and hamlets
Where gush the native fountains;
To the valleys and the sreamlets,
The cities and the mountains –
With a pride as high as Ilion’s!
As the lily
was the glory
Of the olden flag of France;
As the rose illumes the story
Of the Albions advance –
In the shamrock is communion
Of all Irish faith and love;
And the laurel crowns the union
Of grandeurs interwove
‘Round the temple of the chailess
To the laurel fill libations
The cup with shamrocks wreathing;
And before the monarch-nations
Raise the symbol, breathing;
“Equeal Rights” – to lordlings gainless!
Interweave
the lowly shamrock,
Freedom’s laurel to endow;
Ay! Unite with Ireland’s shamrock
Columbia’s laurel bough –
For there’s hope and help unchary
Columbia’s skies beneath,
And from every cliff and prairie,
To Erin’s hills of heath,
Salutations, clear and cheerful,
Resound across the ocean;
And Celts, in might increasing,
With Patriot emotion,
Vow in their souls unceasing;
“We’ll avenge thee, Mother Tearful!”
