October 2009 - Vol. 33

When All the Stars Become a Memory

by Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887-1916)


When all the stars become a memory 
Hid in the heart of heaven; when the sun 
At last is resting from his weary run 
Sinking to glorious silence in the sea 
Of God's own glory: when the immensity 
Of Nature's universe its fate has won 
And its reward: when death to death is done 
And deathless Being's all that is to be-- 
 
Your praise shall 'scape the grinding of the mills: 
My songs shall live to drive their blinding cars 
Through fiery apocalypse to Heaven's bars! 
When God's loosed might the prophet's word fulfils, 
My songs shall see the ruin of the hills, 
My songs shall sing the dirges of the stars.

Joseph Mary Plunkett (1879-1916) was born in Dublin, Ireland. His study of the mystics John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, and Francis de Sales is discernable in his poetry. During the 1916 Rising he was one of the signers of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He was imprisoned by the English army in the Richmond Barracks. Shortly before his execution in the courtyard of Kilmainham jail, on the morning of May 4th, he married his fiance, Grace Gifford, in the jail's chapel. He died at the age of 28.] 

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