| |
| A WOMAN had I seen, as I rode by, | |
| Stacking her turf and chanting an old song; | |
| But now her voice came to me like a cry | |
| Wailing an old immeasurable wrong, | |
| Riding the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | 5 |
| |
| Like a grey ribbon over the dark world, | |
| Lying along the bog that rose each side, | |
| The white road strayed upon the earth, and curled, | |
| Staying its journey where the hills abide, | |
| Riding the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | 10 |
| |
| It was not that the Night had laid her cloak | |
| About the valley, going thro’ the sky, | |
| And yet a dimness like a distant smoke | |
| Had fallen on the Earth as I rode by, | |
| Riding the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | 15 |
| |
| Sweeping the sides of the mountains gaunt and high, | |
| Floating about their faces in the pool, | |
| A shadowy presence with a rustling sigh | |
| Crept thro’ the valley till the valley was full: | |
| My horse’s hoofs fell softy as on wool: | 20 |
| Riding the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | |
| |
| In musical measures like an echo dim | |
| The hoisting held its secret path unseen: | |
| Slaibh Mór looked down on Mám, and Mám to him | |
| Looked up, with Loch nan Ean between: | 25 |
| Riding the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | |
| |
| A new world and a new scene mixed its power | |
| With the old world and the old scene of Earth’s face | |
| A doorway had been folded back an hour; | |
| And silver lights fell with a secret grace | 30 |
| Where I endeavoured the white path to trace, | |
| Riding the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | |
| |
| Within my mind a sudden joy had birth, | |
| For I had found an infinite company there: | |
| The hosting of the companies of the earth, | 35 |
| The hosting of the companies of the air, | |
| Treading the road thro’ Bogac Bán. | |
| The white, strange road thro’ Bogac Bán. | |
| |
