Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A HYMN FOR ST. DAVID'S DAY (TO THE MEMORY OF SIR OWEN M. EDWARDS), by ARTHUR GLYN PRYS-JONES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A HYMN FOR ST. DAVID'S DAY (TO THE MEMORY OF SIR OWEN M. EDWARDS), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Again in unison we stand
Last Line: A nation's prayer, a nation's praise.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Edwards, Sir Owen M. (1858-1920); Memory; Prayer; Wales; Welshmen; Welshwomen


I

AGAIN in unison we stand
Before Thy throne with reverent head—
We, people of Thy mountain-land,
To thank Thee for our deathless dead—
Prince, Poet, Peasant—those who made
For us this heritage of pride,
Building with sword and song and spade
A land where freedom never died.

II

For this our Princes fought and failed,
Our poets dreamed of this far goal,
For this those saintly fathers sailed
The great star-spaces of the soul—
Keeping, amid the storm and strife
And darkness of the uncharted years,
The gleam that lit the way to life,
The faith that vanquished doubt and tears.

III

Grant that we, too, shall seek and hear
The voice that speaks on every hill,
And, through Thy presence passing near,
Find peace within Thy perfect will:
Grant that we bear by scrap and steep
The banners of that dawn unfurled
When men shall march from out of sleep
With songs that will awake the world.

IV

Lord, make us bold beneath Thine hand
Yet humble with a great desire—
Make us a torch—a flaming brand
Fierce with imperishable fire—
With burning vision that shall turn
On ardent feet and soaring wings
To where the waiting nations yearn
For freedom from estranging things.

V

There is a murmur in the clod,
The earth is tremulous with might,
The changeless promises of God
Are pulsing from the infinite:
So, with the spring's green-thrusting throng
We, too, our suppliant voices raise
In token, with this pilgrim song—
A nation's prayer, a nation's praise.





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