Padraic Colum Poems

O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
...

You stay for a while beside me with your beauty young and rare,
Though your light limbs are as limber as the foal's that follows the mare;
...

To Meath of the pastures,
From wet hills by the sea,
Through Leitrim and Longford
Go my cattle and me.
...

O men from the fields,
Come gently within.
Tread softly, softly
O men coming in!
...

My young love said to me: My mother won't mind,
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind.
She put her arms 'round me; these words she did say:
It will not be long, love, 'til our wedding day!
...

THEN, suddenly, I was aware indeed
Of what he said, and was revolving it:
How, in the night, crows often take to wing,
...

THE fiddles were playing and playing,
The couples were out on the floor;
From converse and dancing he drew me,
And across the door.
...

THE little moths are creeping
Across the cottage pane;
On the floor the chickens gather,
And they make talk and complain.
...

O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
...

I’LL be an otter, and I’ll let you swim
A mate beside me; we will venture down
A deep, dark river, when the sky above
Is shut of the sun; spoilers are we,
...