Irish Peasant Song

By Louise Imogen Guiney

1861-1920


I try to knead and spin, but my life is low the while.
Oh, I long to be alone, and walk abroad a mile;
Yet if I walk alone, and think of naught at all,
Why from me that's young should the wild tears fall?

The shower-sodden earth, the earth-colored streams,
They breathe on me awake, and moan to me in dreams,
And yonder ivy fondling the broke castle-wall,
It pulls upon my heart till the wild tears fall.

The cabin-door looks down a furze-lighted hill,
And far as Leighlin Cross the fields are green and still;
But once I hear the blackbird in Leighlin hedges call,
The foolishness is on me, and the wild tears fall!

DayPoems Poem No. 1183
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1183.html">Irish Peasant Song by Louise Imogen Guiney</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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