Wednesday, May 12, 2004

An Old Woman of the Roads

Oh! to have a little house!

To own the hearth and stool and all!

The heaped-up sods upon the fire

The pile of turf against the wall!

 

To have a clock with weights and chains

And pendulum swinging up and down,

A dresser filled with shining delph,

Speckled and white and blue and brown!

 

I could be busy all the day

Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor

And fixing on their shelf again

My white and blue and speckled store!

 

I could be quiet there at night

Beside the fire and by myself,

Sure of a bed and loath to leave

The ticking clock and shining delph!

 

Och! But I'm weary of mist and dark,

And roads where there's never a house nor bush

And tired I am of bog and road,

And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!

 

And I am praying to God on high

And I am praying him night and day,

For a little house, a house of my own-

Out of the wind's and rain's way.

 

by padraic colum  (Irish poet)

 

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