Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RETURN, by MARY JANE CARR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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First Line: Mary o'donovan died yesterday
Last Line: Mary o'donovan went, yesterday.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


Mary O'Donovan died yesterday;
She was 73, and weary and gray;
Tomorrow, they're laying her body away.
But, somehow, I cannot believe her dead --
Her father's fields were so green, she said,
And the Irish skies were so blue overhead ....
"There's never a lark in Americay
Can sing like the little brown birds," she'd say,
"In me father's fields, where I used to play.
Sure, there's many a year betwix' and betwain,
But I know as certain as sun and rain,
Someday I'll be turnin' back home, again."

Over at Donovan's house, tonight,
A corpse lies cold in the candlelight,
And tomorrow the grave will hold it tight;
But I feel no grief, and I can't pretend
So I'll shed no tear, though she was my friend,
For I know that an exile's come to an end.
I close my eyes and I see her there,
A madcap girl with wind-tossed hair,
Running and laughing and devil-may-care ...
To her father's fields, where she used to play,
With an angel of God to lead the way,
Mary O'Donovan went, yesterday.





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