Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.

Blarney Castle

The Blarney

By Samuel Lover (1797–1868)

There is a certain coign-stone on the summit of Blarney Castle, in the county of Cork, the kissing of which is said to impart the gift of persuasion. Hence the phrase, applied to those who make a flattering speech, “You ’ve kissed the Blarney Stone.”

O, DID you ne’er hear of “the Blarney”

That ’s found near the banks of Killarney?

Believe it from me,

No girl’s heart is free,

Once she hears the sweet sound of the Blarney.

For the Blarney ’s so great a deceiver,

That a girl thinks you ’re there, though you leave her;

And never finds out

All the tricks you ’re about,

Till she ’s quite gone herself—with your Blarney.

O, say, would you find this same “Blarney”?

There ’s a castle, not far from Killarney,

On the top of its wall

(But take care you don’t fall)

There ’s a stone that contains all this Blarney.

Like a magnet, its influence such is,

That attraction it gives all it touches;

If you kiss it, they say,

From that blessed day

You may kiss whom you please with your Blarney.