Quote #130937
So, success attend St. Patrick's fist,
For he's a saint so clever;
Oh! he gave the snakes and toads a twist,
And bothered them forever!
Henry Bennett
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
These jaunty lines invoke the popular St. Patrick’s Day legend that Patrick drove the “snakes” from Ireland, treating it in comic, sing-song fashion. The speaker offers a mock-toast—“success attend St. Patrick’s fist”—praising the saint less for solemn piety than for a kind of folk-hero cleverness and physical decisiveness. By pairing “snakes and toads” with the colloquial “gave … a twist,” the verse turns a miracle tale into a humorous image of pest-control and permanent banishment (“bothered them forever”), reflecting how saintly legends often survive in festive culture as playful, exaggerated anecdotes rather than strict hagiography.
