Dora Sigerson Shorter

Down his long garden he did slowly go,
For fairer sight did each new path disclose;
Now bent he where the purple asters glow,
Now stayed his feet beside a changing rose.…

I have been to Hy-Brasail,
And the Land of Youth have seen,
Much laughter have I heard there,
And birds amongst the green.Many have I met there,…

O MOTHER, mother, I swept the hearth, I set his chair and the white board spread,
I prayed for his coming to our kindly Lady when Death's doors would let out the dead;
A strange wind rattled the window-pane, and down the lane a dog howled on,
I called his name and the candle flame burnt dim, pressed a hand the door-latch upon.…

I am the song, that rests upon the cloud;
I am the sun:
I am the dawn, the day, the hiding shroud,
When dusk is done.I am the changing colours of the tree;…

THERE is one at the door, Wolfe O'Driscoll,
At the door, who bids you to come!
"Who is he that wakes me in the darkness,
Calling when all the world is dumb?"Six horses has he to his carriage,…

In a field by Cahirconlish
I stood on sleeping grass,
No cry I made to Heaven
From my dumb lips would pass.Three days, three nights I slumbered,…

Droop all the flowers in my garden,
All their fair heads hang low;
For rose, their fairest companion,
Never again will they know.…

How can I laugh or dance as others do,
Or ply my rock or reel?
My heart will still return to dreams of you
Beside my spinning-wheel.My little dog he cried out in the dark,…

My darling laughed in the dawning,
And the birds perched low to hear.
The quick sprung anew from dead ashes
That Spring's passing feet had flung clear.…

I cried all night to you,
I called till day was here;
Perhaps you could not come,
Or were too tirèd, dear.Your chair I set by mine,…

In every man this world doth hold
Two selves are cast in that human mould.
If he hearken but to the voice of one,
Then heaven is his when his work is done;…

Behold! a new white world!
The falling snow
Has cloaked the last old year
And bid him go.To-morrow! cries the oak-tree…

Here’s a meadow full of sunshine
Ripe grasses lush and high;
There’s a reaper on the roadway,
And a lark hangs in the sky.There’s a nest of love enclosing…

I raised my hands against my fate,
I struck her frowning brows between;
"I will be good, I will be great,
No matter what has been.…

I, like a moth to the candle,
Am chained by a glance from your eye.
If I shun you, the world is in darkness;
If I seek my desire, I die.…

Kine, kine, in the meadows, why do you low so piteously?
High is the grass to your knees and wet with the dew of the morn,
Sweet with the perfume of honey, and breath of the clover blossoms;
But the sad-eyed kine on the hillside see no joy in the day newborn.…

Just this one day in all the year
Let all be one, let all be dear;
Wife, husband, child in fond embrace,
And thrust the phantom from its place.…

I shall go on the gypsies' road,
The road that has no ending;
For the sedge is brown on the lone lake side,
The wild geese eastward tending.…

In the heart of a rose
Lies the heart of a maid;
If you be not afraid
You will wear it. Who knows?In the pink of its bloom,…

When I shall rise, and full of many fears,
Set forth upon my last long journey, lone,
And leave behind the circling earth to go
Amongst the countless stars to seek God's throne.…

The kine of my father, they are straying from my keeping;
The young goat’s at mischief, but little can I do:
For all through the night did I hear the Banshee keening;
O youth of my loving, and is it well with you?All through the night sat my mother with my sorrow;…

I prayed so eagerly,
“Turn and see
How bitter I have striven—
A word and all forgiven.”…

Sing a song for Evaleen, only two years old,
Running laughing on life's path in her wilful way;
Christ-Child, Whom on Mary's knee her loving arms enfold,
Let Thy little angels come with this babe to play.…

Why in my neighbour’s garden
Are the flowers more sweet than mine?
I had never such bloom of roses,
Such yellow and pink woodbine.Why in my neighbour’s garden…