St. Patrick's Day

To honor the upcoming Saint Patrick's Day, I'd like to share my favorite poem, "The Wayfarer" by Patrick Henry Pearse. What makes this poem so significant is the situation in which it was composed. Easter, 1916, a ragtag army of Irish Revolutionaries stormed the General Post Office in Dublin to declare Ireland's independence from the British Empire. The revolution, in the short run, was unsuccessful, and the Irish ringleaders were eventually executed by firing squad. P.H. Pearse while awaiting his execution wrote "The Wayfarer".

The Easter Rising, as it came to be called, eventually led to independence for the lower 26 counties of Ireland while the northern 6 counties remained under British control. After centuries of fighting there is renewed hope in Ireland that a peaceful solution will be found. The Irish struggle is a possible example for disputed territories like Palestine and Kashmir. And now Pearse's poem...

The beauty of the world hath made me sad,
This beauty that will pass;
Sometimes my heart hath shaken with great joy
To see a leaping squirrel in a tree,
Or a red lady-bird upon a stalk,
Or little rabbits in a field at evening,
Lit by a slanting sun,
Or some green hill where shadows drifted by
Some quiet hill where mountainy man hath sown
And soon would reap; near to the gate of Heaven;
Or children with bare feet upon the sands
Of some ebbed sea, or playing on the streets
Of little towns in Connacht,
Things young and happy,
And then my heart hath told me:
These will pass,
Will pass and change, will die and be no more,
Things bright and green, things young and happy;
And I have gone upon my way
Sorrowful.