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.