Ballade To Our Lady Of Czestochowa

I     Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold     And very Regent of the untroubled sky,     Whom in a dream St. Hilda did behold     And heard a woodland music passing by:     You shall receive me when the clouds are high     With evening and the sheep attain the fold.     This is the faith that I have held and hold,     And this is that in which I mean to die. II     Steep are the seas and savaging and cold     In broken waters terrible to try;     And vast against the winter night the wold,     And harbourless for any sail to lie.     But you shall lead me to the lights, and I     Shall hymn you in a harbour story told.     This is the faith that I have held and hold,     And this is that in which I mean to die. III     Help of the half-defeated, House of gold,     Shrine of the Sword, and Tower of Ivory;     Splendour apart, supreme and aureoled,     The Battler's vision and the World's reply.     You shall restore me, O my last Ally,     To vengence and the glories of the bold.     This is the faith that I have held and hold,     And this is that in which I mean to die. Envoi     Prince of the degradations, bought and sold,     These verses, written in your crumbling sty,     Proclaim the faith that I have held and hold     And publish that in which I mean to die.