Irish Jesuit Province

Hill of HowthAuthor(s): Emily HughesSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 67, No. 792 (Jun., 1939), pp. 401-403Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514547 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 02:45

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Jesuit Province is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Monthly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.96 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:45:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

401

Hill of Howth

Disconsolately dispossessed, The screanming gull protects her nest, Beating the air with angry breast;

Curved in a scimitar of light, She cuts the blue air with her flight From sea to cliff, fronm cliff to height.

This is a headland wild and highi; The heather peers up at the sky

With purple and red and pc arly eye,

And though the cluimps swav to and fro, Their roperoots will not let them go Ilowever hard the minds may blow.

Over the edge where the yellow grass, Hollow and drv as a tube of brass Trumpets to all the winds that ptuss.

Over the edge and far belows In mazy paths the currents flow

Through water-worlds we do not- knoNw.

Of strange alluring lands they trace A map as delicate as lace Beneath the sea's untroubled face

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.96 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:45:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

402 THE IRISH MONTHLY

In azure line and crimson shade The webs of jeopardy are made, Like veins in marble, threads in jade.

AwTay where waves break on the strand A ship sets out for pleasure planned XXrith scarlet bunting and a band,

And now its mtusic, faintly sweet, Travels to us on golden feet The path where sun and water meet.

Across the crescent of the bay rThe instruments remotely play,

Thousands of dancing waves away

Too far awvay for us to hear The engine's throb, the creaking gear, The passengers' half-hearted cheer.

The mists that hold the heatof June, The radiant veils of afternoon Conceal us from its sad saloon;

ru'hat crinmson-plush upholstered scene, With fifteen kinds of slot machine, And drear roulette, cannot be seen.

The blistered deck, the weary feet, The enervating waves of heat That from the stockhold upward beat,

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.96 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:45:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

HILL OF HOWTH 403

The fretful child, the mother's frown, The backward glances towards the town

Where streets do not heave up and down,

From all this travesty of glee Distance and sunlight set us free And weave another sorcery.

Only from carrying airs we win The muted music, clear and thin, Of clarinet and violin;

In harmony beneath them come The 'cello's meditative hum, The breathless pulses of the drum.

Happy, immortal shapes they seem, Floating and singing in a dream

While the bright waters shake and gleam.

Now let this hour above the sea, This jewel, shine and dangle free Upon the chains of memory;

Now let the veils of light grow grey And, thickening, end the spellbound day Before the magic fades away.

EMILY HUGIIE&.

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.96 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:45:46 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions