Works

Since your limbs were laid out
The stars do not shine,
The fish leap not out
In the waves.
On our meadows the dew
Does not fall in the morn,
For O'Daly is dead:
Not a flower can be born,...

The leaves are fresh after the rain,
The air is cool and clear,
The sun is shining warm again,
The sparrows hopping in the lane
Are brisk and full of cheer.

And that is why we dance and play,...

A speck went blowing up against the sky
As little as a leaf: then it drew near
And broadened. "It's a bird," said I,
And fetched my bow and arrows. It was queer!
It grew up from a speck into a blot,...

Behind the hill I met a man in green
Who asked me if my mother had gone out?
I said she had. He asked me had I seen
His castle where the people sing and shout
From dawn to dark, and told me that he had...

The sun is always in the sky
Whenever I get out of bed,
And I often wonder why
It's never late., My sister said
She did not know who did the trick,
And that she did not care a bit,...

The night was creeping on the ground;
She crept and did not make a sound
Until she reached the tree, and then
She covered it, and stole again
Along the grass beside the wall.
...

When the bright eyes of the day
Open on the dusk, to see
Mist and shadow fade away
And the sun shine merrily,
Then I leave my bed and run
Out to frolic in the sun.
...

He who locks a gate doth close
Pity's heart against his woes;
But who opens one shall find
God is standing just behind.

Here in a distant place I hold my tongue;
I am O'Rahilly:
When I was young,
Who now am young no more,
I did not eat things picked up from the shore.
The periwinkle, and the tough dogfish...

I thought I heard Him calling. Did you hear
A sound, a little sound? My curious ear
Is dinned with flying noises, and the tree
Goes, whisper, whisper, whisper silently...

There was a giant by the Orchard Wall
Peeping about on this side and on that,
And feeling in the trees: he was as tall
As the big apple tree, and twice as fat:...

And then I wakened up in such a fright;
I thought I heard a movement in the room
But did not dare to look; I snuggled right
Down underneath the bedclothes, then the boom...

I will sing no more songs: the pride of my country I sang
Through forty long years of good rhyme, without any avail;
And no one cared even as much as the half of a hang...

In Dublin town the people see
Gorgeous clouds sail gorgeously,
They are finer, I declare,
Than the clouds of anywhere.

A swirl of blue and red and green,
A stream of blinding gold, a sheen...

My mind is sad and weary thinking how
The griffins of the Gael went over the sea
From noble Eir', and are fighting now
In France and Flanders and in Germany.

If they, 'mid whom I sported without dread,...

Do you hate me, you!
Sitting quietly there,
With the burnished hair
That frames the two
Deep eyes of your face
In a smooth embrace.

And you say naught,
And I never speak;...

If poesy have truth at all,
If some great lion of the Gael
Shall rule the lovely land of F'l;
O yellow mast and roaring sail!
Carry the leadership for me,
Writ in this letter, o'er the sea...

Pity it was that you should ever stand
In ship or boat,
Or that you went afloat
Inside that ship!

The lusty steps you took!
The ways and journeys you knew how to wend...

I was hiding in the crooked apple tree,
Scouting for Indians, when a man came;
I thought it was an Indian, for he
Was running like the wind., There was a flame
Of sunlight on his hand as he drew near,...

Tree! you are years standing there,
Gripping tight to the side of the hill,
And your branches are spread on the air,
While you stand so sad and so still,
And you do not complain...