Produced by David Starner, Sigal Alon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net SIXTEEN POEMS BY WILLIAM ALLINGHAM: SELECTED BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE DUN EMER PRESS DUNDRUM MCMV CONTENTS Page Let Me Sing of What I Know 1 The Winding Banks of Erne 1 Abbey Asaroe 7 A Dream 10 The Fairies 12 The Lepracaun or Fairy Shoemaker 14 The Girl's Lamentation 17 The Nobleman's Wedding 20 Kate O' Belashanny 22 Four Ducks on a Pond 24 AEolian Harp 24 The Maids of Elfin Mere 25 Twilight Voices 26 The Lover and Birds 28 The Abbot of Innisfallen 30 The Ruined Chapel 34 LET ME SING OF WHAT I KNOW A wild west Coast, a little Town, Where little Folk go up and down, Tides flow and winds blow: Night and Tempest and the Sea, Human Will and Human Fate: What is little, what is great? Howsoe'er the answer be, Let me sing of what I know. THE WINDING BANKS OF ERNE Adieu to Belashanny! where I was bred and born; Go where I may, I'll think of you, as sure as night and morn. The kindly spot, the friendly town, where every one is known, And not a face in all the place but partly seems my own; There's not a house or window, there's not a field or hill, But, east or west, in foreign lands, I'll recollect them still. I leave my warm heart with you, tho' my back I'm forced to turn-- Adieu to Belashanny, and the winding banks of Erne! No more on pleasant evenings we'll saunter down the Mall, When the trout is rising to the fly, the salmon to the fall. The boat comes straining on her net, and heavily she creeps, Cast off, cast off--she feels the oars, and to her berth she sweeps; Now fore and aft keep hauling, and gathering up the clew, Till a silver wave of salmon rolls in among the crew. Then they may sit, with pipes a-lit, and many a joke and 'yarn';-- Adieu to Belashanny, and the winding banks of Erne! The music of the waterfall, the mirror of the tide, When all the green-hill'd harbour is full from side to side, From Portnasun to Bulliebawns, and round the Abbey Bay, From rocky Inis Saimer to Coolnargit sandhills gray; While far upon the southern line, to guard it like a wall, The Leitrim mountains clothed in blue gaze calmly over all, And watch the ship sail up or down, the red flag at her stern;-- Adieu to these, adieu to all the winding banks of Erne!