’Tis by Tim the dear saints’ll
set sthore,
And ’ull thrate him to whisky galore:
For they ’ve only to sip
But the tip of his lip
An’ bedad! they’ll be askin’
for more—
Asthore—
By the powers, they’ll be shoutin’
‘Ancore!’
IRISH MELODIES.
II.
KENMARE RIVER.
’Tis pretty to be in Ballinderry,
’Tis pretty to be in Ballindoon,
But ’tis prettier far in County Kerry
Coortin’ under the bran’ new moon,
Aroon, Aroon!
’Twas there by the bosom
of blue Killarney
They came by the hundther’ a-coortin’
me;
Sure I was the one to give back their blarney,
An’ merry was I to be fancy-free.
But niver a step in the lot was
lighter,
An’ divvle a boulder among the bhoys,
Than Phelim O’Shea, me dynamither,
Me illigant arthist in clock-work toys.
’Twas all for love he
would bring his figgers
Of iminent
statesmen, in toy machines,
An’ hould me hand
as he pulled the thriggers
An’
scattered the thraytors to smithereens.
An’ to see the
Queen in her Crystial Pallus
Fly up to
the roof, an’ the windeys broke!
And all with divvle
a trace of malus,—
But he was
the bhoy that enjoyed his joke!
Then O, but his cheek
would flush, an’ ‘Bridget,’
He ’d
say, ‘Will yez love me?’ But I ’d
be coy
And answer him, ‘Arrah
now, dear, don’t fidget!’
Though at
heart I loved him, me arthist bhoy!
One night we stood by
the Kenmare river,
An’
‘Bridget, creina, now whist,’ said he,
‘I’ll be goin’
to-night, an’ may be for iver;
Open your
arms at the last to me.’
’Twas there by the banks
of the Kenmare river
He took
in his hands me white, white face,
An’ we kissed
our first an’ our last for iver—
For Phelim
O’Shea is disparsed in space.
’Twas pretty to be by blue
Killarney,
’Twas pretty to hear the linnets’s
call,
But whist! for I cannot attind their blarney,
Nor whistle in answer at all, at all.
For the voice that he swore ’ud
out-call the linnet’s
Is cracked intoirely, and out of chune,
Since the clock-work missed it by thirteen minutes
An’ scattered me Phelim around the moon,
Aroon, Aroon!
LADY JANE.
Sapphics.
Down the green hill-side fro’ the castle window
Lady Jane spied Bill Amaranth a-workin’;
Day by day watched him go about his ample
Nursery garden.
Cabbages thriv’d there, wi’ a mort o’ green-stuff—
Kidney beans, broad beans, onions, tomatoes,
Artichokes, seakale, vegetable marrows,
Early potatoes.