The Virgin Mary's Bank
A LEGEND OF INCHIDONY ISLAND .
The evening star rose beauteous above the fading day,
As to the lone and silent beach the Virgin came to pray,
And hill and wave shone brightly in the moonlight's mellow fall;
But the bank of green, where Mary knelt, was brightest of them all.
Slow moving o'er the waters, a gallant bark appeared,
And her joyous crew looked from the deck, as to the land she neared;
To the calm and sheltered haven she floated like a swan,
And her wings of snow o'er the waves below, in pride and beauty shone.
The master saw our Lady, as he stood upon the prow,
And marked the whiteness of her robe, and the radiance of her brow;
Her arms were folded gracefully upon her stainless breast,
And her eyes looked up among the stars to him her soul loved best.
He showed her to his sailors, and he hailed her with a cheer;
And on the kneeling Virgin they gazed with laugh and jeer;
And madly swore, a form so fair they never saw before;
And they cursed the faint and lagging breeze that kept them from the shore.
The ocean from its bosom shook off the moonlight sheen,
And up its wrathful billows rose, to vindicate their Queen;
And a cloud came o'er the heavens, and a darkness o'er the land,
And the scoffing crew beheld no more that Lady on the strand.
Out burst the pealing thunder, and the lightning leaped about,
And rushing with his watery war, the tempest gave a shout,
And that vessel, from a mountain wave, came down with thundering shock,
And her timbers flew like scattered spray on Inchidony's rock.
Then loud from all that guilty crew one shriek rose wild and high:
But the angry surge swept over them and hushed their gurgling cry;
And with a hoarse exulting tone the tempest passed away,
And down, still chafing from their strife, the indignant waters lay.
When the calm and purple morning shone out on high Dunmore,
Full many a mangled corpse was seen on Inchidony's shore;
And to this day the fisherman shows where the scoffers sank,
And still he calls that hillock green, " the Virgin Mary's Bank."
The evening star rose beauteous above the fading day,
As to the lone and silent beach the Virgin came to pray,
And hill and wave shone brightly in the moonlight's mellow fall;
But the bank of green, where Mary knelt, was brightest of them all.
Slow moving o'er the waters, a gallant bark appeared,
And her joyous crew looked from the deck, as to the land she neared;
To the calm and sheltered haven she floated like a swan,
And her wings of snow o'er the waves below, in pride and beauty shone.
The master saw our Lady, as he stood upon the prow,
And marked the whiteness of her robe, and the radiance of her brow;
Her arms were folded gracefully upon her stainless breast,
And her eyes looked up among the stars to him her soul loved best.
He showed her to his sailors, and he hailed her with a cheer;
And on the kneeling Virgin they gazed with laugh and jeer;
And madly swore, a form so fair they never saw before;
And they cursed the faint and lagging breeze that kept them from the shore.
The ocean from its bosom shook off the moonlight sheen,
And up its wrathful billows rose, to vindicate their Queen;
And a cloud came o'er the heavens, and a darkness o'er the land,
And the scoffing crew beheld no more that Lady on the strand.
Out burst the pealing thunder, and the lightning leaped about,
And rushing with his watery war, the tempest gave a shout,
And that vessel, from a mountain wave, came down with thundering shock,
And her timbers flew like scattered spray on Inchidony's rock.
Then loud from all that guilty crew one shriek rose wild and high:
But the angry surge swept over them and hushed their gurgling cry;
And with a hoarse exulting tone the tempest passed away,
And down, still chafing from their strife, the indignant waters lay.
When the calm and purple morning shone out on high Dunmore,
Full many a mangled corpse was seen on Inchidony's shore;
And to this day the fisherman shows where the scoffers sank,
And still he calls that hillock green, " the Virgin Mary's Bank."
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