James Stephens

Mad Patsy said, he said to me,
That every morning he could
An angel walking on the sky;
Across the sunny skies of

ND then I pressed the shell Close to my ear And listened well,
And straightway like a bell Came low and clear The slow, sad murmur of the distant seas,
Whipped by an icy breeze Upon a shore Wind-swept and desolate
It was a sunless s...

The wind stood up and gave a shout
He whistled on his fingers and Kicked the withered leaves about And thumped the branches with his hand And said that he'd kill and kill,
And so he will and so he will

I saw God
Do you doubt it
Do you dare to doubt it
I saw the Almighty Man

II cling and
On a branch, or
Through the cool, clear hush of Morning,
O

HE lanky hank of a she in the inn over there Nearly killed me for asking the loan of a glass of beer: May the devil grip the whey-faced slut by the hair, And beat bad manners out of her skin for a year
That parboiled imp, with the hardest jaw...

Every Sunday there's a throng Of pretty girls, who trot along In a pious, breathless state (They are nearly always late) To the Chapel, where they pray For the sins of Saturday
They have frocks of white and blue, Yellow sashes they have too, ...

IN
HE scented bud of the morning—O, When the windy grass went rippling far, I saw my dear one walking slow, In the field where the daisies are
We did not laugh and we did not speak As we wandered happily to and fro; I kissed my dear on e...

The crooked paths go every way Upon the hill — they wind about Through the heather in and out Of the quiet sunniness
And there the goats, day after day, Stray in sunny quietness,
Cropping here and cropping there, As they pause and turn a...

Do not forget my charge I beg of you ;
That of what flow'rs you find of fairest
And sweetest odor you do gather
Are best of all the best — a fragrant rose,

EN the leaves fall off the trees Everybody walks on them :
Once they had a time of ease High above, and every breeze Used to stay and talk to them
Then they were so debonair As they fluttered up and down ;
Dancing in the sunny air,

So Eden was deserted, and at eve Into the quiet place God came to grieve
His face was sad,
His hands hung slackly down Along his robe; too sorrowful to frown He paced along the grassy paths and through The silent trees, and where the flo...