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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Joseph Campbell

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Irish Fairies

Joseph Campbell

WHEN Eber came to Kerry,

When Guaire gave his gold,

Then were we young and merry

Who now are old.

The green and the gray places,

Then were they green and gray:

We saw but shining faces

And open day.

We saw but shining faces,

The sickle moon of night,

White queens in royal places,

And jewels bright.

We heard but beauty spoken,

Red war and passion sung,

Music on harp-strings broken,

When we were young.

What is the morning plougher

To us, whose ancient dream

Is as a fallen flower

Upon a stream?

The glen travails with ploughing

That once was green and still:

The sower follows sowing

Over the hill.