All day I played, and grew with the flowers, (Ireland's hedges are white in May!) Laughed with the sunlight, cried with the showers, Loud sang my merry heart, "Life is play!" I wedded a maid when the shamrock was green, (Blue were her eyes as the June sky above!) I was a king and she was a queen, Low whispered heart on heart "Life is love!" I knelt by the side of her empty bed, (Ireland was gray in the autumn rain.) God and the world far away with my dead, -- "Sure," said my breaking heart, "Life is pain." All day I sit by the peat-fire's glow; (Frosty and raw is Ireland's breath.) Little reck I of the damp or the blow, Peace keeps my tired heart, "Life is death." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COLLOQUE SENTIMENTAL by PAUL VERLAINE SEA-BIRDS by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN DIXIE by DANIEL DECATUR EMMETT BETWEEN THE LINES by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON TO HIS HEART, BIDDING IT HAVE NO FEAR by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS LEANDER DROWNED by PHILIP AYRES OF CAUTION by FRANCESCO DA BARBERINI |