The Adventures of Seumas Beg; The Rocky Road to Dublin — John Shaqi
The Adventures of Seumas Beg; The Rocky Road to DublinStephens, James
General
The Adventures of Seumas Beg; The Rocky Road to Dublin
Stephens, James
Poetry
Then the Frozen Pole would go,
Tossing off his fields of snow,
And would shake delighted feet
With the girls of George's Street.
These, if women only were
Half as kind as they are fair.
HOLLES STREET
Through the air,
Everywhere, the rain is falling;
Brawling on house and tree:
On every place that you can see
The rain drops go;
The roofs are wet, the walls, the ground below.
Midnight has come;
Now all the people stretch them blind and dumb
Each in a bed
Save I, who sit and listen overhead
Unto the rain
Splashing upon the roof and window-pane.
Midnight! and I
Can get no sleep, nor can the sky.
KATTY GOLLAGHER
The hill is bare: I only find
The grass, the sky, and one small tree
Tossing wildly on the wind;
And that is all there is to see:
A tree, a hill, a wind, a sky
Where nothing ever passes by.
CORK HILL
Come all ye happy children, and
Gather round me hand in hand,
Dancing to the merry cry,
"See the Robbers Passing By."
Past the Castle we will dance
To the Mansion House, and prance
Back by George's Street and cry,
"See the Robbers Passing By."
Gather then ye children all
Into ranks processional,
Marching to the merry cry,
"See the Robbers Passing By."
THE PIPER
Shepherd! while the lambs do feed,
And you rest beneath a tree,
Pipe upon an oaten reed
Merrily and merrily.
Should it rain do not forbear--
Rain comes from the happy sky--
Tune us now a quiet air
Till the shower passes by.
Back the sun will come in gold!
Pipe away, my dear, until
Evening brings the lambs to fold--
You may weep then if you will.
THE SHADOW
Silence comes upon the night,
Gone is all the cheerful day,
The moon has disappeared from sight,
Every star has gone away.
Sinking through the void, and thence
Disappearing, star and sky,
In the stern and black immense
That has blinded every eye.
Silence crouches on the land,
In the street a shadow lies
Cloaked in velvet wrappings, and
With a mask upon her eyes.
Anonymous and terrible
Mother of the primal ray,
Only night because thou art
In thyself excess of day.
CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY
When a Dublin man shall say,
"Give me a little bread, I pray,"
If you do not give him bread
You will be hungry when he is fed.
And let no priest or magistrate
Scowl upon the poor man's plate,
Asking him the question sly
To which no one can reply.
STEPHEN'S GREEN
The wind stood up and gave a shout;
He whistled on his fingers, and
Kicked the withered leaves about
And thumped the branches with his hand,
And said he'd kill, and kill, and kill,
And so he will, and so he will.
THE COLLEGE OF SURGEONS
As I stood at the door
Sheltered out of the wind,
Something flew in
Which I hardly could find.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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