England and Yesterday

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</SPAN></span> <h2>TWO IRISH PEASANT SONGS.</h2> <h3>I. IN LEINSTER.</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I try to knead and spin, but my life is low the while.</div> <div class="verse">Oh, I long to be alone, and walk abroad a mile,</div> <div class="verse">Yet if I walk alone, and think of naught at all,</div> <div class="verse">Why from me that’s young should the wild tears fall?</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The shower-stricken earth, the earth-coloured streams,</div> <div class="verse">They breathe on me awake, and moan to me in dreams,</div> <div class="verse">And yonder ivy fondling the broke castle-wall,</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span>It pulls upon my heart till the wild tears fall.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The cabin-door looks down a furze-lighted hill,</div> <div class="verse">And far as Leighlin Cross the fields are green and still;</div> <div class="verse">But once I hear the blackbird in Leighlin hedges call,</div> <div class="verse">The foolishness is on me, and the wild tears fall!</div> </div></div> </div> <h3>II. IN ULSTER.</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">’Tis the time o’ the year, if the quicken-bough be staunch,</div> <div class="verse">The green, like a breaker, rolls steady up the branch,</div> <div class="verse">And surges in the spaces, and floods the trunk, and heaves</div> <div class="verse">In jets of angry spray that is the under-white of leaves;</div> <div class="verse">And from the thorn in companies the foamy petals fall,</div> <div class="verse">And waves of jolly ivy wink along a windy wall.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">’Tis the time o’ the year the marsh is full of sound,</div> <div class="verse">And good and glorious it is to smell the living ground.</div> <div class="verse">The crimson-headed catkin shakes above the pasture-bars,</div> <div class="verse">The daisy takes the middle field, and spangles it with stars,</div> <div class="verse">And down the bank into the lane the primroses do crowd,</div> <div class="verse">All coloured like the twilight moon, and spreading like a cloud!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">’Tis the time o’ the year, in early light and glad,</div> <div class="verse">The lark has a music to drive a lover mad;</div> <div class="verse">The downs are dripping nightly, the breathèd damps arise,</div> <div class="verse">Deliciously the freshets cool the grayling’s golden eyes,</div> <div class="verse">And lying in a row against the chilly north, the sheep</div> <div class="verse">Inclose a place without a wind for little lambs to sleep.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">’Tis the time o’ the year I turn upon the height</div> <div class="verse">To watch from my harrow the dance of going light;</div> <div class="verse">And if before the sun be hid, come slowly up the vale</div> <div class="verse">Honora with her dimpled throat, Honora with her pail,</div> <div class="verse">Hey, but there’s many a March for me, and many and many a lass!</div> <div class="verse">I fall to work and song again, and let Honora pass.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />