Oh for the Kings who flourish'd then! 1 ST. SENANUS AND THE LADY. ST. SENANUS. "OH! haste and leave this sacred isle, "For on thy deck, though dark it be, "And I have sworn this sainted sod "Shall ne'er by woman's feet be trod." * In a metrical life of St. Senanus, which is taken from an old Kilkenny MS., and may be found among the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ, we are told of his flight to the island of Scattery, and his resolution not to admit any woman of the party; he refused to receive even a sister saint, St. Cannera, whom an angel had taken to the island for the express purpose of introducing her to him. The following was the ungracious answer of Senanus, according to his poetical biographer: Cui Prasul, quid fœminis Commune est cum monachis ? Admittemus in insulam. See the Acta Sanct. Hib., page 610. According to Dr. Ledwich, St. Senanus was no less a personage than the river Shannon; but O'Connor and other antiquarians deny the metamorphose indignantly. THE LADY. "Oh! Father, send not hence my bark, "Through wintry winds and billows dark: "I come with humble heart to share 66 Thy morn and evening prayer; "Nor mine the feet, oh! holy Saint, "The brightness of thy sod to taint." The Lady's prayer Senanus spurn'd; NE'ER ASK THE HOUR. NE'ER ask the hour-what is it to us How Time deals out his treasures? The golden moments lent us thus, Are not his coin, but Pleasure's. If counting them o'er could add to their blisses, I'd number each glorious second: But moments of joy are, like Lesbia's kisses, Too quick and sweet to be reckon❜d. Then fill the cup what is it to us How time his circle measures? The fairy hours we call up thus, Obey no wand but Pleasure's. Young Joy ne'er thought of counting hours, A dial, by way of warning. |