Angels there are of peace and prayers, And they that go with wayfarers, And they that watch the house of birth, And they that bring the dead from earth. And mine own Angel. Yet I see, Heading God’s army gloriously, Michael Archangel, like a sun, Splendid beyond comparison! PLANTING BULBS BY KATHERINE TYNAN Setting my bulbs a-row In cold earth under the grasses, Till the frost and the snow Are gone and the Winter passes-- Sudden a footfall light, Sudden a bird-call ringing; And these in gold and in white Shall rise with a sound of winging. Airy and delicate all, All go trooping and dancing At Spring’s call and footfall, Airily dancing, advancing. In the dark of the year, Turning the earth so chilly, I look to the day of cheer, Primrose and daffodilly. Turning the sods and the clay I think on the poor sad people Hiding their dead away In the churchyard, under the steeple. All poor women and men, Broken-hearted and weeping, Their dead they call on in vain, Quietly smiling and sleeping. Friends, now listen and hear, Give over crying and grieving, There shall come a day and a year When the dead shall be as the living. There shall come a call, a footfall, And the golden trumpeters blowing Shall stir the dead with their call, Bid them be rising and going. Then in the daffodil weather Lover shall run to lover; Friends all trooping together; Death and Winter be over. Laying my bulbs in the dark, Visions have I of hereafter. Lip to lip, breast to breast, hark! No more weeping, but laughter! SHEEP AND LAMBS BY KATHERINE TYNAN All in the April evening, April airs were abroad; The sheep with their little lambs Passed me by on the road. The sheep with their little lambs Passed me by on the road; All in the April evening I thought on the Lamb of God. The lambs were weary, and crying With a weak, human cry. I thought on the Lamb of God Going meekly to die. Up in the blue, blue mountains Dewy pastures are sweet; Rest for the little bodies, Rest for the little feet. But for the Lamb of God Up on a hilltop green Only a cross of shame Two stark crosses between. All in the April evening, April airs were abroad; I saw the sheep with their lambs, And thought on the Lamb of God. THE MAKING OF BIRDS BY KATHERINE TYNAN God made Him birds in a pleasant humour; Tired of planets and suns was He. He said: “I will add a glory to summer, Gifts for my creatures banished from Me!” He had a thought and it set Him smiling Of the shape of a bird and its glancing head, Its dainty air and its grace beguiling: “I will make feathers,” the Lord God said.