Dear God! were I fisher and Back in Binédar, And Nelly a fish who Would swim in the bay there, I would privately set there My net there to catch her, In Erin no maiden Is able to match her. And Nelly, dear God! Why! you should not thus flee me, I long to be near thee And hear thee and see thee, My hand on the Bible And I swearing and kneeling And giving thee part Of the heart you are stealing. I've a fair yellow casket And it fastened with crystal, And the lock opens not To the shot of a pistol. To Jesus I pray And to Columbkill's Master, That Mary may guide thee Aside from disaster. We may be, O maiden Whom none may disparage, Some morning a-hearing The sweet mass of marriage, But if fate be against us, To rend us and push us, I shall mourn as the blackbird At eve in the bushes. O God, were she with me Where the gull flits and tern, Or in Paris the smiling, Or an Isle in Loch Erne, I would coax her so well, I would tell her my story, And talk till I won her, My sunshine of glory. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR THE FALLEN (SEPTEMBER 1914) by LAURENCE BINYON HYMN TO ADVERSITY by THOMAS GRAY DARTMOUTH by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE TAKE YOUR CHOICE: THEN THERE'S T.A. DALY by BERTON BRALEY ON THE BIRTH OF A POSTHUMOUS CHILD by ROBERT BURNS SKETCH - PORTRAIT OF CREECH THE BOOKSELLER by ROBERT BURNS |