Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FINNEGAN'S WAKE, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FINNEGAN'S WAKE, by                    
First Line: Tim finigan lived in walker street --
Last Line: Bad luck ter yer souls! / d'ye think I'm dead?
Variant Title(s): Finigan's Wake
Subject(s): Wakes


TIM FINIGAN lived in Walker street --
An Irish gintleman, mighty odd.
He'd a bit of a brogue, so neat and sweet,
And to rise in the world, Tim carried a hod.
But Tim had a sort of tippling way;
With a love of liquor Tim was born,
And, to help him through his work each day,
Took a drop of the creature every morn.

Chorus:

Whack! Hurrah! Now dance to your partners,
Welt the flure, your trotters shake;
Isn't all the truth I've told ye,
Lots of fun at Finigan's wake?

One morning Tim was rather full,
His head felt heavy and it made him shake;
He fell from the ladder and broke his skull,
So they carried him home, his corpse to wake.
They rolled him up in a nice clean sheet,
And laid him out upon the bed,
With fourteen candles round his feet
And a bushel of 'taters round his head.

His friends assembled at his wake,
Missus Finigan called out for the lunch;
And first they laid in tay and cakes,
Then pipes and tobacky and whisky punch.
Miss Biddy O'Neil began to cry:
"Such a purty corpse did yez ever see!
Arrah! Tim mavourneen, and why did ye l'ave me?"
"Hold your gob!" sez Judy Magee.

Then Peggy O'Connor took up the job:
"Arrah, Biddy," says she, "ye're wrong, in sure."
But Judy gave her a belt in the gob,
And left her sprawling on the flure.
Each side in war did soon engage;
'Twas woman to woman and man to man;
Shillelah law was all the rage
And a bloody ruction soon began.

Mickey Mulvaney raised his head,
When a gallon of whisky flew at him;
It missed him, and, hopping on the bed,
The liquor scattered over Tim.
"Och! he revives! See how he raises!"
And Timothy, jumping from the bed,
Cries, while he lathers round like blazes,
"Bad luck ter yer souls! D'ye think I'm dead?"





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