Water for drinking
Tobar Lachteen or St.Joseph’ Well near the Crosses of Annagh, County Clare.
Tobar Lachteen
On! let me spend one quiet hour
The Annagh’s stream beside,
Where ‘neath the ivy-mantled bridge
Its noiseless waters glide,
And let me dream when silence falls
Upon the peaceful scene,
Beneath the drooping thorns that shade
The Well of Saint Lachteen.
The Pagans there held mystic rites
Long after Patrick came,
But Lachteen, with his mission torch,
Enkindled bright a flame
That showed them to the Christian path—
The water dripping down
A likeness to God’s mercy hath
Beside the Annagh brown.And so, for thirteen hundred years,
Have people come to pray,
And where the fountain’s crystal flow
Goes on by night and day—
In Summer’s heat or Winter’s cold—
Within that moss-grown grot
We peace and solace ever find
Beside that hallow’d spot.I like to go there when the sun
Is sinking in the west,
And sombre shadows gather round
That sanctuary blest,
Where I can hear the fountains drip
Within the grotto green,
That washes sordid thoughts away
When praying to Lachteen.And when the moon with glam’rous beam
Shines on that grotto fair,
Where every tree and moss-grown stone
Is sanctified by prayer,
I love to linger by the shrine
Where heaven-born wishes dwell,
And pray for friends, alive and dead,
At Lachteen’s Holy Well.‘Tis pleasant there at eventide
To hear the cuckoo’s call,
Or, resting at the nooning hour,
Fond mem’ries to recallOf Faith through all the ages long,
The fervent thousands seen,
That came their votive “rounds” to do
And pray to Saint Lachteen.Bareheaded and barefooted, too,
They trod the circling path,
And kept alive through blood and tears
The burning light of Faith, -
And where the Annagh’s bog-brown stream
Flows deep beneath the arch,
We keep Saint Lachteen’s festival
The nineteenth day of March.
Mark Waters marked time at 4:10 pm on November 14th, 2005 .
