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THE GARDEN OF THE BEES THE RUSHLIGHT THE MAN-CHILD THE GILLY OF CHRIST
MAUNSEL AND COMPANY, LTD. 96 MID. ABBEY STREET, DUBLIN 1909
The Storm is Still, the Rain hath Ceased 15
Ciaran, the Master of Horses and Lands 49
This book is made up of a selection from the Author's early books, with many new poems added.
A line's a speech; So here's a line To say this pedlar's pack Of mine Is not a book-- But a journey thro' Mountainy places, Ever in view Of the sea and the fields, With the rough wind Blowing over the leagues Behind!
I am the mountainy singer-- The voice of the peasant's dream, The cry of the wind on the wooded hill, The leap of the fish in the stream.
Quiet and love I sing-- The carn on the mountain crest, The cailin in her lover's arms, The child at its mother's breast.
Beauty and peace I sing-- The fire on the open hearth, The cailleach spinning at her wheel, The plough in the broken earth.
Travail and pain I sing-- The bride on the childing bed, The dark man labouring at his rhymes, The ewe in the lambing shed.
Sorrow and death I sing-- The canker come on the corn, The fisher lost in the mountain loch, The cry at the mouth of morn.
No other life I sing, For I am sprung of the stock That broke the hilly land for bread, And built the nest in the rock!
When rooks fly homeward And shadows fall, When roses fold On the hay-yard wall, When blind moths flutter By door and tree, Then comes the quiet Of Christ to me.
When stars look out On the Children's Path And grey mists gather On carn and rath, When night is one With the brooding sea, Then comes the quiet Of Christ to me.
I spin my golden web in the sun: The cherries tremble, the light is done.
A sudden wind sweeps over the bay, And carries my golden web away!
In Cherry Valley the cherries blow: The valley paths are white as snow.
And in their time with clusters red The scented boughs are crimsonèd.
Even now the moon is looking thro' The glimmer of the honey dew.
A petal trembles to the grass, The feet of fairies pass and pass.
By _them_, I know, all beauty comes To me, a habitan of slums.