An Old Woman of the Roads
And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house-a house of my own-
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.

15

A RANN OF EXILE

NOR right, nor left, nor any road I see a comrade face, Nor word to lift the heart in me I hear in any place;

They leave me, who pass by me, to my loneliness and care. Without a house to draw my step nor a fire that I might share!

Ocón! before our people knew the scatt'ring of the dearth, Before they saw potatoes rot and melt black in the earth, I might have stood in Connacht, on the top of Cruchmaelinn,

And all around me I would see the hundreds of my kin.

A RANN OF WANDERING

ON Saint Bride's day, when it comes, I will throw a sail on the lake,

And in Cahir of my kindred on a fine day I'll awake, There the hounds will go before us, and make music of delight;

And the fires will be piled up there, and the tables spread at night;

O, my courage will be mounting up until my spirit's so, That within a mile of the World's Mouth I will be fain

to go:

Sure the scatt❜ring of the mist across leaves no half wish

behind,

And my heart was always lifted with the lifting of the wind.

THE BEGGAR'S CHILD

MAVOURNEEN, we'll go far away
From the net of the crooked town,
Where they grudge us the light of the day.

Around my neck you will lay

Two tight little arms of brown.
Mavourneen, we'll go far away
From the net of the crooked town.

And what will we hear on the way?
The stir of wings up and down, says she,
In nests where the little birds stay!

Mavourneen, we'll go far away
From the net of the crooked town,
Where they grudge us the light of the day.

THE BALLAD OF DOWNAL BAUN
(Domhnal Ban)

The moon-cradle's rocking and rocking,
Where a cloud and a cloud goes by:
Silently rocking and rocking,

The moon-cradle out in the sky.

The hound's in his loop at the fire,

The bond-woman spins at the door;

One rides on a horse through the court-yard: The sword-sheath drops on the floor.

I

My grandfather, Downal Baun,

Had the dream that comes three times :
He dreamt it first when, a serving boy,
He lay by the nets and the lines,

In the house of Fargal More,

And by Fargal's ash-strewn fire,

When Downal had herded the kine in the waste,

And had foddered them all in the byre;

And he dreamt the dream when he lay

Under sails that were spread to the main;

When he took his rest amid dusky seas,
On the deck of a ship of Spain;