Gather Round Me: The Best of Irish Popular PoetryChristopher Cahill The Irish have long been associated with great writing generally, and poetry specifically. The love of language spreads all over this strong culture, and the Irish people have long shared poetry with each other, whether in the street, in the home, or in the pub. These more common poems may be bawdy or tragic, but there is always something quintessentially Irish about them. Now, Christopher Cahill has put together a collection of the best of these Irish popular poems, found in newspapers, heard in pubs, or scribbled down in diaries. Drawing on work published and shared from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, the poems range from the satirical to the sincere, but oftentimes they simply provide a hysterical tale that begs to be read aloud. Cahill includes anonymous balladeers as well as famous Irish poets like W. B. Yeats and Brendan Behan, who wrote poems very consciously and proudly in the popular tradition. The Irish live in all parts of the world, so the collection includes poems from the United States, Canada, Australia, and other locations that have a strong Irish presence. With explanatory notes by Cahill that make the verse more accessible than ever, these poems act as the voice of the Irish people, full of humor, mischief, and wit. "Gather Round Me is itself a wonderful gathering of popular Irish lyrics ranging from traditional songs to the rhymes of Brendan Behan and beyond. Like a long night in the flaring glow of a pub, the collection mixes the playful and the tragic, the melancholy and the ironic, and it reminds us finally of a dispossessed people's need for songs and poems that could always be carried in their hearts and minds."--Billy Collins "A lovely rattlebag, a saddlebag, a grab bag of poems. Christopher Cahill has put together a collection that gathers us around four hundred years of love, life and lament. There's a marvellous eclectic arc in operation here. Cahill invents a hearth where we are invited to sit from early morning until nightfall, so open a bottle and set aside the parting glass."--Colum McCann, author of Dancer: A Novel |
From inside the book
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... Brian O'Linn | TRADITIONAL 37 My Grief on the Sea | TRADITIONAL , TRANSLATED BY DOUGLAS HYDE 38 The Brewer's Man | L. A. G. STRONG 39 The Homeward Bound | THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE 41 The Drynán Dhun | ROBERT Dwyer Joyce PART II THERE WAS ...
... Brian O'Linn | TRADITIONAL 37 My Grief on the Sea | TRADITIONAL , TRANSLATED BY DOUGLAS HYDE 38 The Brewer's Man | L. A. G. STRONG 39 The Homeward Bound | THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE 41 The Drynán Dhun | ROBERT Dwyer Joyce PART II THERE WAS ...
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Contents
Introduction | 13 |
AS I ROVED OUT ON A SUMMERS MORNING | 17 |
The Dawning of the Day EDWARD WALSH | 19 |
The Colleen Rue TRADITIONAL | 20 |
A Vision AODHAGAN ORATHAILLE TRANSLATED | 21 |
JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN | 22 |
The Old Triangle BRENDAN BEHAN | 23 |
The Mantle So Green TRADITIONAL | 26 |
The Croppy Boy TRADITIONAL | 80 |
I LEAVE MY WARM HEART WITH YOU THOUGH MY BACK IM FORCED TO TURN | 81 |
The New Irish Girl TRADITIONAL | 83 |
Kilcash TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED BY FRANK OCONNOR | 84 |
The Outlaw of Loch Lene TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED BY JEREMIAH JOSEPH CALLANAN | 86 |
Moorloch Mary ETHNA CARBERY | 87 |
A Glass of Beer JAMES STEPHENS | 88 |
The Blind Traveller TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED BY ALF MACLOCHLAINN | 89 |
Going to Mass Last Sunday DONAGH MACDONAGH | 27 |
The Fiddler of Dooney W B YEATS | 28 |
The Little Door TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED BY BENEDICT KIELY | 29 |
The Forsaken Soldier HUDIE Devaney TRANSLATED BY PADDY TUNNEY | 30 |
The Emigrants Letter PERCY FRENCH | 31 |
The Small Towns of Ireland JOHN BETJEMAN | 33 |
Brian OLinn TRADITIONAL | 36 |
My Grief on the Sea TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED BY DOUGLAS HYDE | 37 |
The Brewers Man L A G STRONG | 38 |
The Homeward Bound THOMAS DARCY MCGEE | 39 |
The Drynán Dhun ROBERT Dwyer Joyce | 41 |
THERE WAS WHISKEY ON SUNDAY AND TEARS ON OUR CHEEKS | 43 |
On Raglan Road PATRICK KAVANAGH | 45 |
To Inishkea KATHERINE TYNANHINKSON | 46 |
The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow TRADITIONAL | 48 |
From Galway to Graceland RICHARD THOMPSON | 49 |
The Fairies WILLIAM ALLINGHAM | 50 |
The Hill of Killenarden CHARLES G HALPINE | 52 |
Master McGrath TRADITIONAL | 54 |
OMahonys Lament DOUGLAS HYDE | 55 |
An Irishmans Dream JOHN J OBRIEN | 57 |
The Mountains of Mourne PERCY FRENCH | 58 |
The Broad Majestic Shannon SHANE MACGOWAN | 59 |
The County of Mayo THOMAS LAVELLE TRANSLATED BY GEORGE | 60 |
HOW THE HEART OF THE MINSTREL IS BREAKING | 61 |
The Wee Lassies First Luve TRADITIONAL | 63 |
The Street BalladSingers Song JEREMIAH ODONOVAN ROSSA | 65 |
Street Ballad | 66 |
Rody McCorley TRADITIONAL | 67 |
The Wild Colonial Boy TRADITIONAL | 69 |
The Silence of Unlaboured Fields JOSEPH CAMPBELL | 70 |
The Workmans Friend FLANN OBRIEN | 71 |
To My Son in Americay ALF MACLOCHLAINN | 72 |
The Man of the North Countrie THOMAS DARCY MCGEE | 74 |
The LowBackd Car SAMuel Lover | 75 |
She Is Far from the Land THOMAS MOORE | 77 |
If I Was a Blackbird TRADITIONAL | 78 |
Me an Me Da THE REVErend William MARSHALL | 90 |
The Galbally Farmer DIARMUID ORIAIN | 93 |
An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog OLIVER GOLDSMITH | 95 |
The Ould Orange Flute TRADITIONAL | 97 |
The Winding Banks of Erne WILLIAM ALlingham | 101 |
Love Is Pleasing TRADITIONAL | 102 |
Thomas MacDonagh FRANCIS LEDWIDGE | 103 |
The Convict of Clonmel TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED | 104 |
JEREMIAH JOSEPH CALLANAN | 105 |
THEN FURTHER GOING MY WILD OATS SOWING TO NEW YORK CITY I CROSSED THE | 107 |
The Lambs on the Green Hills TRADITIONAL | 109 |
A White Rose JOHN BOYLE OREILLY | 110 |
My Love Is Like the Sun TRADITIONAL | 111 |
The Spanish Man F R HIGGINS | 113 |
Oh Breathe Not His Name THOMAS MOORE | 114 |
Les Silhouettes OSCAR Wilde | 115 |
Heres to the Maiden Richard Brinsley SHERIDAN | 116 |
The Spanish Lady JOSEPH CAMPBELL | 118 |
Whiskey in Me Tay TRADITIONAL | 120 |
Epigrams TRADITIONAL TRANSLATED BY MAIRE MACENTEE | 121 |
Sweet Omagh Town TRADITIONAL | 123 |
The Old Bog Road TERESA BRAYTON | 125 |
SO FILL TO ME THE PARTING GLASS | 127 |
She Moved through the Fair PADRAIC COLUM | 129 |
The Three Jolly Pigeons OLIVER GOLDSMITH | 130 |
A Pair of Brown Eyes SHANE MACGOWAN | 132 |
Ringsend OLIVER ST JOHN GOGARTY | 133 |
The Night Before Larry Was Stretched TRADITIONAL | 134 |
Song of the Ghost ALFRED Percival GRAVES | 137 |
The Ballad of William Bloat RAYMOND Calvert | 139 |
Ballad to a Traditional Refrain MAURICE CRAIG | 141 |
Let Us Be Merry Before We Go JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN | 142 |
The Parting Glass TRADITIONAL | 143 |
Endpiece BRENDAN BEHAN | 144 |
NotesCredits | 145 |
Acknowledgments | 160 |
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Common terms and phrases
Americay ballad Ballyshannon banks of Erne Benedict Kiely born BRENDAN BEHAN brown eyes Colleen Rue County dawning dear Dooney Drumlister Drynán Dhun Dublin emigration fair fairy Gaelic Galway to Graceland Gather round girl grey grief hair heart hills Inishkea Irish language Irish popular Jeremiah Joseph Callanan jingle jangle Kilcash Killenarden land Larry low-back'd car maid mantle so green Master McGrath Mayo merry moorcocks crow Moorloch Mary morning mountain night o'er Old Bog Road old triangle ould flute Paddy Tunney pair of brown PINT OF PLAIN poem poet poetry Raglan Road Reprinted by permission Ringsend Rody rose Royal Canal says Brian O'Linn SHANE MACGOWAN sighing sing song sorrow Spanish Lady sweet Omagh Town There's THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE Thomas MacDonagh Toroddle Towns of Ireland TRADITIONAL 19TH CENTURY translated triangle Went jingle Twas United Irishmen W. B. Yeats whiskey wild colonial boy William winding banks young