Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DONAGHADEE (SONG), by THOMAS HARDY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DONAGHADEE (SONG), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I've never gone to donaghadee
Last Line: And yet I sing of donaghadee!


I'VE never gone to Donaghadee,
That vague far townlet by the sea;
In Donaghadee I shall never be:
Then why do I sing of Donaghadee,
That I know not in a faint degree? . .
-- Well, once a woman wrote to me
With a tender pen from Donaghadee.

"Susan," I've sung, "Pride of Kildare,"
Because I'd heard of a Susan there,
The "Irish Washerwoman's" capers
I've shared for hours to midnight tapers,
And "Kitty O'Linch" has made me spin
Till dust rose high, and day broke in:
That other "Kitty, of Coleraine,"
Too, set me aching in heart and brain:
While "Kathleen Mavourneen," of course, would ring
When that girl learnt to make me sing.

Then there was "Irish Molly O"
I tuned as "the fairest one I know,"
And "Nancy Dawson," if I remember,
Rhymed sweet in moonlight one September.

But the damsel who once wrote so free
And tender toned from Donaghadee,
Is a woman who has no name for me --
Moving sylph-like, mysteriously,
(For doubtless, of that sort is she)
In the pathways of her destiny;
But that is where I never shall be; --
And yet I sing of Donaghadee!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net