| Padraic Colum (1881–1972). Anthology of Irish Verse. 1922. |
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| 140. Terence MacSwiney |
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| By A. E. |
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| SEE, though the oil be low more purely still and higher | |
| The flame burns in the body’s lamp! The watchers still | |
| Gaze with unseeing eyes while the Promethean Will, | |
| The Uncreated Light, the Everlasting Fire | |
| Sustains itself against the torturer’s desire | 5 |
| Even as the fabled Titan chained upon the hill. | |
| Burn on, shine on, thou immortality, until | |
| We, too, have lit our lamps at the funeral pyre; | |
| Till we, too, can be noble, unshakable, undismayed: | |
| Till we, too, can burn with the holy flame, and know | 10 |
| There is that within us can triumph over pain, | |
| And go to death, alone, slowly, and unafraid. | |
| The candles of God are already burning row on row: | |
| Farewell, lightbringer, fly to thy heaven again! | |
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