FAR away from my friends, On the chill hills of Galway, My heart droops and bends, And my spirit pines alway, -- 'T is as not when I roved With the wild rakes of Mallow, -- All is here unbeloved, And I sigh for Duhallow. My sweetheart was cold, Or in sooth I'd have wept her, -- Ah, that love should grow old And decline from his sceptre, While the heart's feelings yet Seem so tender and callow! But I deeplier regret My lost home in Duhallow! My steed is no more, And my hounds roam unyelling; Grass waves at the door Of my dark-windowed dwelling. Through sunshine and storm Corrach's acres lie fallow; Would Heaven I were warm Once again in Duhallow! In the blackness of night, In the depth of disaster, My heart were more light Could I call myself master Of Corrach once more Than if here I might wallow In gold thick as gore Far away from Duhallow! I loved Italy's show In the years of my greenness, Till I saw the deep woe, The debasement, the meanness, That rot that bright land! I have since grown less shallow, And would now rather stand In a bog in Duhallow! This place I'm in here, On the gray hills of Galway, I like for its cheer Well enough in a small way; But the men are all short, And the women all sallow; Give M'Quillan his quart Of brown ale in Duhallow. My sporting days o'er, And my love-days gone after, Not earth could restore Me my old life and laughter. Burns now my breast's flame Like a dim wick of tallow, Yet I love thee the same As at twenty, Duhallow! But my hopes, like my rhymes, Are consumed and expended; What's the use of old times When our time is now ended? Drop the talk! Death will come For the debt that we all owe, And the grave is a home Quite as old as Duhallow! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OVID, OLD BUDDY, I WOULD DISCOURSE WITH YOU A WHILE by HAYDEN CARRUTH SPRING NOTES FROM ROBIN HILL by HAYDEN CARRUTH LEFT-HANDED POEM by JAMES GALVIN SUPREME by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CHAMBER MUSIC: 9 by JAMES JOYCE |