An Irish Mother
An Irish Mother
1A wee slip drawin’ water,
2 Me ould man at the plough,
3No grown-up son nor daughter,
4 That’s the way we’re farmin’ now.
5‘No work and little pleasure’
6 Was the cry before they wint,
7Now they’re gettin’ both full measure,
8 So I ought to be contint.
9Great wages men is givin’
10 In the land beyant the say,
11But ‘tis lonely -- lonely livin’
12 Whin the childher is away.
13Och, the baby in the cradle,
14 Blue eyes and curlin’ hair,
15God knows I’d give a gra’dle
16 To have little Pether there;
17No doubt he’d find it funny
18 Lyin’ here upon me arm,
19Him -- that’s earnin’ the good money,
20 On a Californy farm.
21Six pounds it was or sivin
22 He sint last quarter day,
23But ‘tis lonely -- lonely livin’
24 When the childher is away.
25God is good -- none betther,
26 And the Divil might be worse,
27Each month there comes a letther
28 Bringing somethin’ for the purse.
29And me ould man’s heart rejoices
30 Whin I read they’re doin’ fine,
31But it’s oh! to hear their voices,
32 And to feel their hands in mine.
33To see the cattle drivin’
34 And the young one’s makin’ hay,
35‘‘Tis a lonely land to live in
36 When the childher is away.’
37Whin the shadders do be fallin’
38 On the ould man there an’ me,
39‘Tis hard to keep from callin’
40 ‘Come in, childher, to yer tea!’
41I can almost hear them comin’
42 Mary, Kate and little Con, --
43Och! but I’m the foolish woman,
44 Sure they’re all grown up an’ gone.
45That our sins may be forgiven,
46 An’ not wan go asthray,
47I doubt I’d stay in Heaven
48 If them childher was away.
Publication Notes
Best Irish Songs of Percy French ed. Tony Butler (London: Wolfe Publishing Ltd., 1971): 20-21. ML54.6 .F7B4 Robarts Library
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire