W. T. Quirk – Manx Poet & Writer

The lamp is lit, the wick burns clear;

The night is still, without, within.

Time in his chariot draws not ...

Great saffron moon low on the sea,

Indigo trees with starry crowns,

Attend our homing feet,

Our lantern’s orange glow...

Come, climb in me, feel my rude strength.

Come, trust my embrace and mount, till at length

From a nest ...

The Eairy Dam lies chill, its surface flecked

Into sharp ripples by the breeze.  Reeds sway

Ever so slightly where ...

Maid in bonnet

Posing demurely

Hiding your face as if surely

You knew the look on it.

There for all ...

Let us take a walk beside the lovely Silverburn

Whose waters ripple twinkling on the stones.

Smell the sweet aroma ...

Oh, come to the mountains !

Oh, come to the hills !

Where crystalline fountains

Dance in the sun,

And ...

Old dark night

Poking about under the trees,

Under the apple trees in the orchard,

An ancient fellow with fleas...

Curlew in the night

Take me in your flight

Over dark restless waves

To the resonant caves

Where the tide ...

The dead grey waters heave and dwindle low

In the phantasmal veiling of the mist

That merges sea and sky ...

The old black boat

Will never float

Except upon a sea of nettles;

Half on her side

She lay, and ...

They sleep below

Grassy mound and lichened stone,

Old men and young men,

Girls and women,

Children,

Laid in row ...

Here, where the bees are droning

Athwart the fuchsia bush,

All, all, save their intoning

Is wrapped in evening hush;...

The crocus lifts her valiant head

To light the first flame of the year,

And winter falters.

She blows a ...

The waterlilies floated on the still

Green bosom of the lake, yellow and white

Cups sitting on their rounded velvet ...

She is my love and I her knight and gallant gay.

I often think that once she might

Just look ...

If he sees not the springtime green,

If he hears not the birds’ sweet song,

If he goes without having ...

In the oil-lamp’s mellow light

Fears and fancies crowd in sight,

While outside the waiting night

Draws in eerily;

From ...

O mammoth trunk,

To earth you’ve sunk,

Your roots flung in the air;

Your leafy crown

In weeds brought down...

Two worlds exist.  The one, a place of light

All coloured, bright and glittering; of time

That stretches limitless in ...

The honeyed breath of meadowsweet

With perfume doth the arbour fill,

Where we wander on happy feet

Beside the rill....

Blue sky and golden sun,

The scent of new-mown hay,

And a parcel of fun

When the work is done...

August has fled into the void

And taken with her hours

And minutes that I have enjoyed

But knew it ...

Tonight I smelt the smoke

Of a woodland fire.

Sudden, bitter-sweet it came,

Creating the desire

Leaping like the dead ...

It is only a book

And a tattered one at that,

And if you closely look

There’s the binding showing ...

Come your ways in,

Stranger no stranger,

Gently, so gently.

Here is no sin,

Here is no danger;

Here is ...

If you should in your frantic grief revile

The blows of fate, and at some godhead scream,

Not understanding the ...

Draw the curtains, hide the light;

Themselves are riding out tonight.

Through the glen

The Little Men

Thrash the branches ...

Awake to life and feel its pulse

Beating from the heart to brain,

Teeming in the earth,

Streaming out from ...

The lamp obeys my every whim

As did Aladdin’s long ago,

And it its dim

And gentle glim

It conjures ...

Warriors win renown

And seek a victor’s crown:

They strain and strive

To keep alive

The spark that in them ...

Up from the gulfs of the dark,

Up from the depths of the night,

Floating up into the arc

Of ...

One night I turned my lamp-wick down,

Dowsing the light, and in the dark

Prepared for sleep.  But from the ...

The silver sea, the golden sand,

The smiling meadows green and fair;

The beaming sun, the azure sky,

The charmed ...

Sequins of moonlight quiver and gleam,

Dance to the music, the waltz of the stream;

Laugh in the night of ...

Miasmic shapes that writhe and whirl

In robes diaphanous and white,

That round the hedges coil and furl,

And make ...

They hang violet globes from the trees

Like hearts in the bosoms of leaves,

Pendulous in summer rain,

Crowning the ...

Crimson banners unfurl in the dusky fires

Beyond etched tree-lined and gold-tipped spires;

A blaze as a brand is the ...

Sing to me of the dark pine woods,

O wind of the night!

Voice to my heart the deep call...

A voice in the night whispers, ‘Where?’

And the breeze

In the trees

Seems to sigh

To the sky,

‘They ...

When all is quiet where there has been laughter,

And the last voice has faded fdown the lane

The house ...

Moon-green shingle, pallid sand.

The sea in molten metal sleeping;

A roving filament, bright band,

From distant lighthouse thinly creeping....

Now good old Yule-tide once more comes
With blare of cornets, roll of drums,
And folks like us are full ...

The brown leaves fall in umber woods,

The trees shake off their gowns;

And all the hues of summer’s moods...

He came in for a cooish,

The oul’ man with a cap,

An’ he sat on the settle,

The cat ...

When drought was on the land the water shrank

In Baldwin valley, and the hidden ooze

Rose into sight behind ...

When I will die
Bury me nigh
My mountains high,
Near to the sky
Where breezes sigh.

Bee’s lullaby,
Bird’s ...

WT completed this hymn of praise to England just two days before he died, and it appeared posthumously later the ...

WT completed this hymn of praise to England just two days before he died, and it appeared posthumously later the ...

WT completed this hymn of praise to England just two days before he died, and it appeared posthumously later the ...

Over the midnight wave

A starry carpet is spread;

Starry flowers on the grave

Where a day lies dead.

 ...

A pig, a pig!
Who’ll buy my pig?
Thou’ll nowhere find a pig as big
As Curlywig,
As Curlywig!

Fresh ...

Oh, weather clerk, oh why hast thou
On this, this one day of all days
Quenched by thy clouds the ...

A dim and lovely region full of shade,

Brown leaves that spread a carpet for the feet;

An aisle between ...

A dim and lovely region full of shade,

Brown leaves that spread a carpet for the feet;

An aisle between ...

Oh, Father, from Thy lofty seat,
Oh, hear our simple prayer!
Be with the toilers on the deep,
Safe keep ...

All hail the Island Kingdom !

All hail its mighty clan !

Where flies the flag of freedom

Above the ...

A spirit fascinating, ageless dwells

Besides the glinting streams where rocks abound,

Where young and vigorous cataracts swift dash

Homing ...

A glinting stream
Fretting over the stones in the chine,
Murmuring in and out of the pebbles,
Curling
And swirling,...

Where Santon’s stream winds through its gorge

And little waterfalls

Make music in the humid air

A subtle presence everywhere...

There’s a harmony in summer of a rich and perfect blend;

Though its cadences descend

In a long chromatic scale,...

(Ecclesiastes Ch. 3)

TO every worldly thing a season is;
A time to every purpose under heaven;
A time for ...

The cold flat oceans a green mirror heave

Beneath the rocks that bord a dreary land.

A sea-gull wings the ...

Oh, Freddie on the fiddle
And I on the piano
With others in the middle
A-drinking champiano.
We’ll make the ...

There is rain on the window and rain on the door,
The garden is swimming in yellows and greens;
Whoever ...

I’m out me knees thinnin turmits,
An the soil’s turble coul on the hans,
An I’m thinkin about them swell ...

More gorgeous citadels than man can build,

Can build, or plan, bolder in sheer design

Than all his most advanced ...

More gorgeous citadels than man can build,

Can build, or plan, bolder in sheer design

Than all his most advanced ...

The lonely lime-washed farmsteads are a string

Of pearls that lie encircling the green throat

Of one of Mona’s lesser ...

The Escalonia smells sweet

After a shower of rain,

Its waxy flowers like babies’ feet

Shine in the sun again....

Moored to the wall my little boat

Sits on the harbour bed

Inert, forlorn;

Like some outworn

And shabby garment ...

Trim on the tarmac, shapelier than the plane,

Sleek, streamlined for the job, with tapping heels

She walks, hat cocked, ...

This is the day that celebrates All Fools!

On this day half-demented oafs conspire

To snare the sane, unwitting, with ...

Where can you go if you would be alone?

Into the forest?  There you will not lack

For company; nature ...

Let me lean over
Soothingly, tenderly,
Thou wast my lover,
Fashioned so slenderly;
Angel wings hover,
Home is the rover....

It stands half hidden in the brambles tall

Where honeysuckle and the wild rose grow,

A rusty iron wicket, old ...

He ambled along

With never a friend,

With never a song

Some gladness to lend.

His hair lay like snow...

There is music in the field
Where the reapers keen scythes wield
In the corn stalks half-concealed:
“Anna Moyra!”
Who ...

When winter scourges earth with vicious flail

And nature cowers cringing ‘neath his lash;

When life is taken in the ...

When winter scourges earth with vicious flail

And nature cowers cringing ‘neath his lash,

When life is taken in the ...

On with the motley, cap and bells, for March

That bold and boist’rous fellow now has gone

And taken with ...

Their burnished scales flash golden through the glass

As leisurely they glide in water clear,

Gazing in mild surprise, their ...

Well may we marvel at titanic thrust

That drives a projectile into the skies,

Defying gravity to quit the earth...

At bluebell time the light of heaven

Is caught and held in many a glen,

As though some extra grace ...

At Bluebell Time

At bluebell time the light of heaven

Is caught and held in many a glen,

As though ...

At the top of the house is a world of play.
Rooms where children are noisy and gay.
Cable-cars rattle ...

O harbinger of more expansive days,

Your double fluting falls upon my ears

With all the sudden magic of lost ...

Away beyond the seething foam

Where curlews call with plaintive cries

I seem to hear the whisper, “Come”

And see ...

Ballads of the Ballamooars

LONELY now to me are the lanes of memory,
Dull the days I wander on the ...

There comes into my mind, recalling folk

With whom we spent ten happy summer days,

Oblivious to each measured pruning ...

What do you see in the glen of Ballure,

You who walk through it so casually

Your mind full of ...

A golden moon hung low upon the sea.
The hills were yellow where they turned their slopes,
But black upon ...

The dear worn face of Ellan Vannin holds

For me an ever-growing loveliness.

Tender in leas and stern in wilderness,...

Beyond the sun is an immeasurable void;

Beyond the laughter is a gulf of tears.

The bright facade of living ...

Beyond the sun is the immeasurable void;

Beyond the laughter is a gulf of tears.

The bright facade of living ...

Down in the wheatfield where the poppies burn

We gather arms of corn, and laugh and shout,

And chase the ...

All hail this gladsome day !

Whereon was born a little girl

With smiling eyes and clustering curl,

As precious ...

For joy a smile,

For sorrow tears,

For friendship an unburdened heart.

‘Tis not worth while

To count the years;...

For joy a smile,

For sorrow tears,

For friendship an unburdened heart

‘Tis not worthwhile

To count the years;

Time ...

Swart as the eyes of gypsies, indigo

Clusters of droplets on the trailing vines,

The wild fruit of the bramble ...

(After Rabindranath Tagore)

One morning I was walking in the park

Amongst the flowers that were lifting high

Their faces ...

When I am weary, weary, weary, by night and by day,
And my mind is afloat on the oceans of ...

What new-made comets climb the murky skies

And each in lurid light their transient rune,

Ephemeral as a whim that ...

Do thou know about Ossy an’ Mary
Were farmin’ the crof’ Ballanad?
Aw, I laughed till me bones was all ...

(Translated from the French of Charles Baudelaire)

‘Tis bitter-sweet on cold and wintry nights
To sit beside a fire that ...

Fluttering beside
The dusty hedge,
Beauty espied,
Summer’s pledge.
Settling now –
What are thou?
Silent, unheard,
Insect or bird?...

“Called I thee fair? Called I thee nymph divine?
Called I thee fragile, dainty, perfumed flower?
And didst thou miss ...

To utter pious hopes is not enough !

No unctuous platitudes can heal the sores

That corruscate the leprous hide ...

Between two ranks of craning necks they come,

The cavalcade of grim determined cheer

In all its panoply of colours ...

There is a carnival in Peel to-night,
And joyous laughter rings through starry dark.
Confetti falls in showers, a rainbow ...

Sequins of moonshine quiver and gleam,

Dance to the music, the waltz of the stream;

Laugh in the night of ...

See where the mighty keep its form uprears
In lofty grandeur to the pondering sky.
See the majestic pile there ...

OH, it is a castle ancient and its grim and rugged pile
Has known a hundred battles fought where now ...

Grey as the ash from once fierce-kindling fires,

Grey as the bones from ancient Viking pyres.

Grey as the twilight ...

Eyes golden in the morning sun he sat

Hunched on the garden wall, his smoky fur

Vibrant with leashed energy, ...

To live within a cave is not so good.

All sights and sounds of men are thereby barred

Save at ...

Oh, where were you going in such great haste?

Seeing nothing around you, your eyes straight ahead?

Was it something ...

Upon a board of squares the pieces stand

Neatly in rows, opposed for skilful war;

The infantry in front, the ...

The yellow sunlight mocks her tangled hair,

Threading with callous gold disordered curls,

And with derisive finger strokes her cheek....

(From Rabindranath Tagore)
 

Child in the dust sitting, what happy play

Make you all morning with a broken twig,...

Above us is a star-gemmed canopy

That leans upon Slieu Whallian’s shoulder here.

There, farther off, Barrule waits stealthily

For ...

Tranquil mere in sunset light,
Mirror of gold:
On thy breast doth radiance pour,
Shady trees thine edge embower,
All ...

(Apologies to Coleridge)

AT Kerrowhdhoo did Cobbler Cain
A splendid pleasure ground decree,
Where Ballacottier’s river ran
Through valleys beautiful ...

A glinting stream

Frets over the stones in the chine,

Murmurs its way through the pebbles,

Curling and swirling

And ...

(Apologies to John Masefield)

OH, Westminster’s a fine coll,
And all its sights are rare;
And here the chaps are ...

(Apologies to Samuel T. Coleridge)

THERE is our George! He looks so old,
In truth you’d find it hard to ...

(Apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Knock, knock, knock,
On the tight-shut door, O ye!
And I couldn’t for decency utter...

(Apologies to nobody)

O Infamy! O Tyranny! Still one
More paper in Mathematics Practical!
When shall we cease, we horny ...

(Apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson)

YOU must come call me early, call me early, knocker-up;
Tomorrow’ll be the earliest morn ...

AS one journeying in a torrid land
Beneath th’impassioned sun, no tree
To shelter life, or canopy,
His tongue swoll’n, ...

UNTIDY Gale, who loudly speaks,
Oh, go and change those holey breeks
That seem as though they’ve swept the floor,...

SOMEWHERE there sounds a bell!
Anon there comes the noise of clatt’ring feet;
Upon the stairs a savoury odour meet,...

ONE little month will soon slip by,
Four little weeks will quickly fly;
“Twenty eight days!” we gladly cry,
And ...

A leaden sombre sky,
A dull unchanging day,
I gaze with mournful eye
Upon the doleful day.

Yet all the ...

A Very Anciente Ballad

‘Artie, Artie, what mak’s ye sae sad,
And the sun shines in the street and a ...

AS children playing in the sand
Are loth to leave the mounds they make,
Yet onward o’er the level strand...

ALL lying on the floor; kicked here and there
By clumsy-footed animals greedy
For their own bags and caring naught ...

WIRES here, wires there,
Wires everywhere.
Who rises like a sudden thought?
Why, Prinny; nervous and distraught.
O Prinny, calm!...

A silence reigns.
Anon a husky cough the stillness breaks,
Some little noise the student makes,
Then silence reigns!

A ...

(Apologies to Browning)

AT the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time,
When I stick the stamp with glee;
Will ...

(Apologies to S.T. Coleridge)

AND this place we are forced to use all morn!
This, for the practice of our ...

(Apologies to Crabbe)

Thus once again, my native isle, I come
Thee to salute, my earliest, only home;
Much art ...

(Apologies to Tennyson)

Artie and Willie
Slept in a cell;
Sleep, tired students;
And they slept well.

Green was the ...

(Apologies to Rothery)

Sleep, weary student, sleep,
While shadows soft creep.
Lie cold in your nest
By raw winds caress’d....

(Apologies to Arthur Hugh Clough)

To spend nine weeks of toil and pain,
Again, again, and yet again,
In working ...

Oh, warm the breath!
Oh, sweet the sighs!
Fast-closed eyes
White sheets beneath.
Cease not, O breath;
Come not, O ...

(Apologies to Matthew Arnold)

Prinny dear, was it yesterday
We left sweet Douglas on its bay?
In the caverns ...

Amid this gloom of bricks and lime
Where life is but a pantomime,
Where London roars and church bells chime,...

I plucked an apple; the apple was sour.
I threw it away, and picked a flower.
The flower was withered, ...

SWOLLEN and angry with foaming crest
The river swirls along,
With frowning brow and quickly heaving breast,
The river-reeds among....

YOU ask me why I sit and gaze
With vacant stare in front of me;
And why amid this dunce’s ...

IF time could roll back years for me
And lift the veil that ages seam,
Them might I live what ...

FOUR more Saturdays will come and go
Ere from this place we turn our toe
In fervid jubilation.
Four more ...

(With apologies to John Masefield)

QUINN came in from Newcastle and some from far Carlisle,
Travelling down to London from ...

Usual toil!
Quick as Kissacks
We turn in Physics
A bobbin for our coil.
Unusually hot,
Curious the weather
Fickle ...

OUR homes are in the trees,
We are clad but in the breeze,
And our forms are feathery light,
Flaky ...

TO rise in the grey of the morning
When the sun has not risen from bed,
A dark scowl our ...

IF I am wearied of this life of toil,
And all the air seems full of sweating groans,
When there ...

THE sun will shine, and yet the rain may pour;
The stream swift run, yet still backwaters creep.
Thus though ...

Calculus awful,
Quite a mwful!
No Physical Training,
For it is raining,
And we are thankful,
Though earth is dankful....

Another fine day.
How time flies!
Where to-day
My way lies?
I don’t know,
To and fro;
Potter hither,
Maybe ...

(With apologies to Fitzgerald)

1.
Awake! for, Ringing in the Realm of Night,
The Morning Bell has put all Sleep ...

Well-a-day, there’s a junior called Price
Who really is awfully nice,
So gentle and sweet,
And so dainty of feet,...

So this May Day! And very appropriate weather
Sun shining, and face shining, both of ‘em together.
May all before ...

(Apologies to Southey)

It was a winter evening.
My morrow’s work was done,
And I before my window drear
Bewailed ...

(Apologies to Leigh Hunt)

Benjamin Heppell (may his tribe decrease!)
Awoke one night feeling quite ill at ease
To see, ...

I cry out aloud to the tempest
As it sweeps in the dark world about me;
It answers my prayer ...

High wind shrieking
Through trees, and rumbling
In the flues
Old and crumbling,
Can’t hear speaking –
What’s the use?...

A College Cantata
(With Greek Chorus)

CHORUS: Hide thee, Joey, in thy cover,
Grim Bill wants thy barren hand;
We ...

(Apologies to Christina G. Rossetti)

MY part is like a rigmarole
That makes me want the author shoot;
My part ...

THERE’S a little cottage nestling
Under trees whose tops are wrestling
With the strong winds from the hill;
At their ...

(With apologies to Lord Byron)

AS seniors we came up like wolves on the fold
Though our faces were gleaming ...

(Apologies to Robert Bridges)

I love all ancient things,
I’d like to restore them;
Castles and narrow ways;
For man ...

(Apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson)

I have a merry room-mate who lives in the Well with me,
And what goes ...

Blue are thy delicate veins,
Cream-white thy skin,
Old rose thy laughing lips –
It were a sin
Not to ...

Jenny with her level brows
And curly raven hair,
Jenny can my interest rouse
As no one else would dare....

I often wonder about Molly,
For when I see her smile
I don’t know if it’s at me or my ...

RUTH is of girls
All laughter and light,
Of beauty and grace
That shines in her face,
So oval and ...

He was a man whose aim was such
That people called him narrow;
His vision did not widen much
Beyond ...

A cold yellow fog, and a college grey
Asleep in the fog, and no sound to disturb
The cold dank ...

From my debased position on the floor
My outward view is bounded by the splay
Of Duggie’s leg. No matter ...

A Lurid Speaker! O most excellent man
That shocked the grave susceptibilities
Of stiff-necked tutor and prim scholar clan,
Causing ...

London is fair this morning,
The day’s in her second doze,
And through the haze
Come the warm rays
Of ...

How the small bird doth sing,
And everything
Wake in the spring!
How the grey chill doth wing
Away, away!...

Fog is like some clinging girl
Of writhing shape and yellow curl,
Vague, mysterious, veiling light,
Turning happy day to ...

I went for a walk in London to-day
In just a listless, ambling way;
There seemed so little for me ...

(For A.W.K.)

You passed me by
With but a fluttering glance,
Yet in your eye
Did sunbeams dance;
And oh, ...

Smoke!
I choke,
This is more than a joke,
All the gods I invoke.
Smoke
Pouring out in voluminous masses...

Music is like a sunset sky, at night
Suffusing the whole world with amber light,
Casting around start trees a ...

(Apologies to Lewis Carroll.)

1.
How doth the little Crabtree lad
Improve his shining face,
By thinking of his home, ...

Eddie climbing up the rungs
Twisted one of his two lungs;
As he spat, he said, “Why, Pitts
“Shouldn’t be ...

I know that fellow named Hancock
Went to visit some people at Bangkok,
When offering him port
They said, “Be ...

To force un food that we loathe
Is something we will never suffer;
Though Cook does her utmost to clothe...

Tis said that old Father Pressure Osmotic
Had certain deficiencies in his sclerotic;
The most painful of which was a ...

(Apologies to Wordsworth)

Hurrah for rumour! We have heard,
We hear it and rejoice;
Our cook is gone! She was ...

(Apologies to Sir Walter Scott)

Our brick wall swank with a lively fair,
Westminster stones are green.
And we may ...

Gloomy, dusty, bright motes playing
In the slanting beam of sunlight,
Pouring on us while we’re praying
Praying to be ...

Sleepest thou, beloved?
The ceaseless drain doth drip
In cadenced monotones,
Lashed beneath the whip
Of a wind that moans....

1.
Oh, come with me and I will show you
Where the students meet for prayers
In the morning and ...

London is sad this morning,
To-day is a day of tears;
And in the room
Long shadows gloom,
And on ...

I SIXTY SEVENTH SONNET

Unheeding stream, yet one last time I look
At your clear crystal depths, in impish speed...

(With apologies to C. Wolfe)

Not a ‘hem’ was heard, not a clearing throat
As its course the tense drama ...

(Apologies to Robert Southey)

My days upon the Isle are past;
Around me I behold,
Where’er my jaundiced eyes are ...

(Apologies to Thomas Campbell)

Ye clarinet of Hubert
That sounds its As and Cs,
Whose bell had blared a thousand ...

Arthur crouches low and mutters
Cruel things about his bed.
Pete with legs like lengthy putters
Shambles round as one ...

(Apologies to Sir Walter Scott)

Oh, old Doctor Dick has come into the hall!
Throughout the grey college his face ...

THE church bells have been pealing and are hushed;
Their call to worship fell like fragrant dew
Upon rich meadow ...

(With apologies to John Keats)

Reason for trysts and fellow youthfulness,
Close bosom friend of the last remaining one,
Despairing ...

She walked to chapel in the eventide
And they that saw her go spoke thus aloud:
“She always walks alone ...

1.
This morning we have more
More vapour from the Jackass we adore,
The subject Francis Bacon.
He tells us ...

The rock is smooth.  It faintly shines,

Containing in itself some residue of light

That down the ages suns

Succeeding ...

Like some great submarine it marks the bay,

This hulk of rock awash when tide is high,

Lurking below the ...

Theer’s no such thing as convarsion thou’re sayin’?
An’ it’s only a lot of oul’ boghned this prayin’?
Well, maybe ...

Here within this country chapel,

Small and bare and dimly lit,

Quiet save for tick and rappel

Of the watching ...

Blue sky and golden sun,

The scent o’ new-mown hay,

And a parcel o’ fun

When the work is done...

YE sons that are going to fight for your country,
Stout be your hearts as ye march on your way;...

The last low hillock of the land is here;

The last lone rampart of the pasturage;

The farthest flung of ...

O meadow lea where in childhood free

O’er your grass I’ve wandered, a happy boy,

From my earliest years I ...

There are, for those who seek retreat

From the hard-pressing demons of the city street,

From the insistent clamour of ...

Here in past days a hilltop fortress stood

When life was insecure, and lawless greed

Stalked through this Island as ...

I

Love once came dancing through a forest glade
In wild abandon and in fancy free,
But ah, he stopped ...

An open boat upon an open sea;
The sky, a canopy of million stars o’erhead;
The only occupant a broken ...

The drowsy valley lay in mid-day sun,

Its winding road was dusty in the heat;

The grassy slopes were innocent ...

A nation weeps, a nation mourns,
A nation sorrows in its bournes,
A sombre cloak its frame adorns,
For Haig ...

The Catholic Mary now draws near her end,
Her end unmourned by England, riven sore
By enmities and strife, for ...

Now last of all here comes cold proud December;
Last lies it on the calendar, not least.
Glowing alone, the ...

I do not know a sweeter sound

Than rain upon the thirsty ground;

A lovelier sight I’ll never see

Than ...

Deep in the mem’ries of long ago
Lies something precious and rare,
Gratefully lighting with gentle glow
Days that are ...

King of the flowers, in royal robes attired,

Tall in border raise your noble height,

Bringing the blue of summer ...

One moment she was there, laughing, alive;

The next, after goodbye, she walked away,

One in a crowd of others, ...

There was a time, but it has long since fled,

When this fair bay was known to passers-by

As a ...

THE savoury smell of the kipper fried
Steals to my nose, and I,
Thinking of nothing but filling inside,
Quickly ...

A rift within twin cliffs precipitous

Splits the grim granite to the eastern sea

And a thin fringe of shelving ...

A twisting road beneath an arch of trees

Leads northwards out of Ramsey to the Dhoor.

The seeker after peace.  ...

All morning while the fingers of the clock

Their leisured way,

Their awful, tantalizing, terrifying way,

Have moved, as if ...

They hang their heads as if in prayer, their ears

Laid back in docile meekness, and their eyes

Closed against ...

(from the play ‘Eric Everard’)

Brother mine, the night is dark!
Must you go? Must you go?
Beware the dark ...

The black water chuckles in the night

Furtively caressing concrete piers,

Winking with yellow eyes at each lone light,

Smacking ...

I sit behind the wheel and watch the flow

Of cottages and trees, hedges and grass;

Nocturnal dogs and cats ...

The smoke curled lazily

To sky that seemed asleep,

In still air hazily

The far hills melted deep,

Blurred with ...

The Eairy Dam lies chill, its surface flecked

Into ripples by the breeze.  Reeds sway

Ever so slightly where they ...

The Eairy Dam lies chill, its surface flecked
Into sharp ripples by the breeze. Reeds sway
Ever so slightly where ...

‘Tis early morning and the gloomy night
Has flown with all its damp and heavy dew,
And bats and owls, ...

Dew-pearled the lawn, and ruddy-lipped the sky,
New-waked the cock that nearby proudly crows;
Sighing the zephyr awakening the rose;...

Silence prevails, the very air is still;
Muffled are footsteps on the parapet;
Hushed are the cars, and quiet is ...

The town’s asleep, the streets are bare and cold;
Shuttered the shops, the window-blinds are down;
Raw lies the morning ...

(The first of the Black Hole Ballads)
(With apologies to Gray)

The school bell tolls the knell of parting day;...

ELEVEN days from now I’ll be
From homestead putting out to sea,
And as the vessel shapes her course
What ...

She who took such delight

In all God’s creatures, all His flowers,

Was with us then,

Her eyes filled with ...

The escallonia smells sweet
After a shower of rain,
Its waxy flowers like babies’ feet
Shine in the sun again....

We like to go for a good long walk
In the evening after tea,
And with the neighbours have a ...

Cold ashen light in the valley,

Rose-pink above it and grey,

Pale with the advent of twilight,

Sad with the ...

A ship sailed out into the golden west,
Her sails were set and bellied in the breeze.
But battered she ...

O mammoth trunk,

To earth you’ve sunk,

Your roots flung in the air;

Your leafy crown

In weeds brought down...

O mammoth trunk,
To earth you’ve sunk,
Your roots flung in the air;
Your leafy crown
In weeds brought down...

Above is pain,

Below I wait, a helpless clod,

And drag with me about

A sudden disbelief in God,

In ...

Of February I was wont to think

With shudders and a spirit-chilling sense

Of death and barrenness and crumbling mould...

Of February I was wont to think

With shudders and a spirit-chilling sense

Of death and barrenness and crumbling mould...

There is a glen whose lichened boles

Straight as cathedral columns stand;

A place wherein the humbler souls,

Barred from ...

Let pagan mistletoe hang in the hall,

And holly with its prickles and its bright

Vermilion berries grace the festive ...

Let pagan mistletoe hang in the hall

And holly with its prickles and its bright

Vermilion berries grace the festive ...

When the summer day is over
An’ its busy keers hev flown
I sit me on the promenade
An’ think ...

The fire grows low, the embers fall apart,
The room grows dark and shadows steal around;
I gaze and gaze ...

The snow lies thick on twig and branch,
A feathery foliage, white and rare.
Beneath this gradual avalanche
The features ...

The fishermen when evening falls put out

In their small craft to grace the open sea

And leave the safety ...

Oh, they who live in Fistard now have not

The urgent need as once upon a time

To seek protection ...

Skipping lightly on the green,

Weaving patterns out and in,

Children taking hands are seen

Under summer skies.

In the ...

In the oil-lamp’s mellow light
Fear and fancies crowd in sight,
While outside the waiting night
Draws in eerily!
In ...

This turning earth of ours has brought again

To hearts that have congealed with winter’s chill,

To roots that have ...

1. Can mortal man taste of diviner joy
Than that which fills the heart of one who drives
A rattling ...

1. Slowly, oh slowly, opened I my eyes
To gaze in drowsy wonder at the mass,
The grey translucent mass, ...

1. The morn broke fair; how unlike yesterday
When clinging wetness covered everything!
Now on the dewy grass young sunbeams ...

1. Why did I vow that I should go this day
With Harry to the village, when the tent
Is ...

1. Awake, ye sleepers, to the blushing day,
Blushing for shame that here low-couched ye lie,
When her great herald ...

1. Day with her consort of the blazing locks
Stormed on the shades and drove them from the dell,
Set ...

1. Rain, droning rain, and a gloom that filled our hearts.
Will it never cease its funeral dirge
To the ...

1. Flown is the week; our sojourn nears its end!
In a few hours the laughing mountain stream
Will pass ...

I seem to hear the rallying call
When daylight fades and shadows fall
And dusk is creeping up the glen,...

FOXDALE STREAM

I.

O singing stream, I take one tender look
At thy clear crystal depths in childish speed
Dancing ...

South Barool !  Aw, the sight from the top o’er the lan’,

I’m thinkin’ is turrble an’ wunnerful gran’ ;...

ALAS, the church is empty near,
The light is dim, the service drear;
The hymns are poor, and more than ...

Of commonplace things and commonplace life we dream.
In commonplace homes and commonplace streets we live.
Humble and poor and ...

A song floats by upon the breeze,
I try to catch its air;
I know the whispers of the trees,...

THE wearying shore
Fought inch by inch,
Back to the cliff
Against the advancing sea.
And more and more,
Yet ...

Far and near the fairies weep!
Near and far the shadows creep!
Now the beast’s life-breath is flown,
Fairies and ...

Let me address the shade of Walter Scott !

Oh, great romantic heart, were you indeed

A visitor to this ...

(After Catullus, the Roman lyrical poet)

To me he seems a god, no less,

Who on the headland pensive stands,...

The gentle slopes of Manxland’s hills descend

Into no lovelier glen than this, I ween,

With plunging falls and fir-treed ...

Glen Lough

Just in off the high road,

Through a sagging gate,

Serpentine the pathway

Winds where tall trees wait....

Over the hushed glen

A quiet spirit broods;

Far from haunts of men

Is its solitudes.

Gaunt trees stand on ...

The lovely glens of this green isle

Were one-time avenues of delight,

Where Nature at her work could smile

Before ...

Glenfaba Mill, thy lumbering wheel
Still turns in heavy majesty;
Its measured movement may reveal
The sure approach of destiny;...

Moaning, rising, shrieking, falling, spun
Around the gables of the Church of Runn
(An ancient saint of Manx descendancy)
The ...

As I was going to Tynwald Fair

I met a merry maiden,

I said to her, “Why go you there?...

They then inscribed the legend “King of Jews”

Where He was hanging from a wooden cross,

Crucified on a hill ...

Yet still one more Good Friday dawns! ‘Tis fair,
That is the striking fact, ‘tis bright and clear;
No fairer ...

Little pale face crowned by auburn hair,

Gazing and gazing with sorrowful air;

Lying so wistful, pathetic, there —

Goodbye,goodbye ...

Who wants to stem the flow of man’s ideas

With all their consequences, new and strange,

Must take their leave ...

Is there a bush more commonplace than gorse,

So undemanding in its humble way,

So sturdy and compact, but with ...

The day was hot, the balls were white;
We slammed them round with main and might;
Cared not a whit ...

(Apologies to R.W. Emerson)

Being the Twenty First of the Black Hole Ballads

IF the Grammarian thinks he speaks
The ...

Grandfather clock, grandfather clock!
Tick, tock! Tick tock!
Weighing out seconds, and minutes, and hours,
Clipping off time with merciless ...

A medal pinned upon the breast

Is heroism self-confessed

For all the world to see;

No thoughts of meekness animate...

‘Fire!’
The cry went echoing wide,
Down the deserted street
In the gray light of dawn
That dread word was ...

They touch, they grasp, they clench, they open wide;

They clap, they wave, they spread in gesture mute;

They clasp ...

I see a field, an upland field of corn

Whose tawny tresses wave and whisper still

Within my heart after ...

See the house : how grim it stands

In its lonely solitude !

Feel the ghostly clammy hands

Repelling you...

The church bells have been pealing and are hushed:

Their call to worship fell like fragrant dew

Upon rich meadow ...

Tendrils that cunningly twist on the tree,

Threading in sinuous curls in the leaves;

Clasping in breathless abandon to be...

How huge are horses in the dusk.  They loom

Tremendous where they stand against the sky,

Etched like great statues, ...

Long shining corridor agleam in green and white,

What do you know of suffering who see it every day?

With ...

(The sixth of the Black Hole Ballads)
(With apologies to Walter Scott)

Breathes there a boy with soul so dead...

I sprang to the saddle with Arthur behind,
And two of us rode with one thought in our mind
To ...

They cling like limpets to the rocky steep

These cottages that flank the winding road

Climbing the Mull; or like ...

She is my love and I her knight
And gallant gay!
I think sometimes that once she might
Just look ...

I remember a maiden.

Her face invades my dream.

Her hair was black as the midnight wave,

Her eyes were ...

I remember a maiden,
Her face invades my dreams.
Her hair was black as the midnight wave,
Her eyes were ...

I saw thee weep, but knew not why
Thou wast upset, nor what the thief
Called Time had stol’n, to ...

If he sees not the springtime green,
If he hears not the birds’ sweet song,
If he goes without having ...

In every smile a threat
If we can see it there;
In every word a curse
If we expect to ...

(Scene: Garden before the house. The lovers walk on, arms entwined.)

Illiam:

Many the nights we two have spent like ...

To strike the blow

When passions rise,

And tempers glow

In angry eyes,

Is not to show

An action wise....

The ribboned water falls with gentle sound

From mossy stone to darkly limpid pool,

Which boils and bubbles to the ...

If you should, in some frantic grief, revile

The hand of fate, and at the Godhead scream,

Not understanding the ...

Go not into Gleneedle,

Not when the moon is new;

Lest you should meet

On silent feet

A youthful ghostly ...

You will never come again,

You who were so gay

That summer’s day.

You will never laugh again

In quite ...

Her mild blue eyes in which there lurked such fun,

Set wide beneath her brow so smooth and white,

Could ...

WHEN I look back on what has gone
And view the wasted years
I wonder should I travel on
With ...

1.
In the beginning there was God.
And God was there, and God was God.
And God created heaven and ...

A secret lies within this heart ; the hills

Conceal the knowledge with self-conscious air,

As an old man remembers ...

(The fifteenth of the Black Hole Ballads)

THE scrawl’s on the board,
And we are still bored;
Mathematics aye will...

Sometimes a yellow slug
Creeps up the pipe
To where the hole is for the plug.
It looks like some ...

A silhouette against the evening sky
He stands pensive and still;
The twilight fades, the breezes sigh
O’er all the ...

AT the head of Douglas harbour
Stands the Douglas Railway Station
In its late-Victorian splendour,
Red of brick, with iron ...

Let me tell you of the engines,
Of the sixteen little engines,
Very shiny in their green paint,
Very striking ...

NOW a word about the stations,
Little wayside country stations;
Some with platforms, some without them;
Some with buildings, some ...

Let me take you on a journey
Cross the island to the westward
Starting out from Douglas Station
On the ...

Green-mantled isle of rock-bound coast and hills,
Of smiling fields and hedgerows bright with flowers,
Of happy memories of leisured ...

Now, Willie the Gimlad’s mother
Was keepin’ a shop in Glenmaye,
Theer wasn’ out theer such another
So jesh, an’ ...

Fair over all the land the level light

Streamed from the west and swept the valley floor,

Casting no shadows, ...

The cliffs of Jurby stand out in the sun,

Clear and erect up-rising from the shore

Like walls of a ...

See on the grassy river bank in play
Themselves disporting all the livelong day
The sweet Katrina and her Ramion....

Was it the name ?  We always laughed to hear

It mentioned, and we voiced the hoary joke

Times without ...

Oh, weep for our land of quick passing day!
Sigh for the words now passed for ever far
From the ...

Remember now thy Maker in thy youth,
While evil days come not, nor years draw nigh,
When thou shalt say, ...

Old Snaefell lifts his mighty brow and looks

With calm demeanour o’er his realm of brooks,

Circled with his attendant ...

How still and peaceful is the Sabbath eve!
A spiral of blue smoke is wandering
Into the air, and that ...

The yellow sunlight mocks her tumbled hair,

Threading with callous light those tender curls,

And with irreverent finger strokes her ...

I’m writing this letter at bed-time.

There are only three chaps in the hut.

But out of that number

There’s ...

When on my books I cast affectionate eye

And see them patient in their ordered ranks,

Waiting to serve me ...

Sleepy and rosy, Heather is here,

Fresh from her cot; she’s so precious and dear!

Little eyes blinking, nodding her ...

UPON this clean white page I write
A verse for you to treasure.
Let those who wish to bark and ...

The clock dings out the passages of time
In solemn strokes, clear, sure, and ponderous;
With every quarter a melodious ...

The air is still, there is no sound,
White are the roofs, and white the ground,
And soft white flakes ...

The little harbours of the island lie

Snugly at rest, below the headlands green,

Each a retreat from the stormy ...

...

 We have a little girl and she’s nearly seven months old,

And we weigh her every Tuesday, and she’s worth ...

Back in the days when the mountains were new,

Long long ago,

Love then was faithful and steadfast and true,...

Oft have I wondered what that isle,
Lying ‘neath Albion like an egg
Where she puts forth her western leg,...

When the cool north wind blows the hills are clear,

Holding no secrets; every field and croft,

Each tree and ...

The world is asleep!
A mantle covers up its face, its changeful voice is still;
The earth is cold and ...

(From the French of Georges Jamin)

I am distraught under a grievous blow.
Each moment teems with mem’ries of the ...

O’er the green hedges came the jolly cry
Borne on the breeze of reapers in the wheat,
And all was ...

Sometimes a yellow slug

Creeps up the pipe

To where the hole is for the plug.

It looks like a ...

Oft in the days when the fairies were free,
Long, long ago:
On moonlit grass they would hold revelry,
Long ...

Tinker, tailor, plumber,
All’s the same to me,
To me, to me!
Soldier, sailor, drummer,
Men I long to see,...

The mountain is a yawning gulf, a well

Of blackest night that opens on the sky

To swallow all the ...

The shamrock leaf on Patrick’s Day

Reminds us all to pray

To father, Son and Holy Ghost,

To pray for ...

To clothe their thought in words most men contrive,

And in such raiment seek to give it shape ;

But ...

Borne to my ears the sound of billows’ roar,
Borne to my ears the far surf’s sullen song,
The scream ...

(Prize Poem, D.S.S.)

Somewhere in Mona’s verdant isle there lies
A landscape formed of pastures, farms, and trees,
Enclosed on ...

Mary Ann, Mary Ann,

From the little Isle of Mann,

She’s the sweetest of her clan,

She’s a darling!

She’s ...

Here to the holy well on pilgrimage

Came on an August Sunday the devout,

The youthful and decrepit, those about...

I can see a low white farmhouse

On the slope of Mannin’s hills

And a garden, scented, tangled there, and ...

Annie sits upon the milking stool,
Her head is pressed into the cow;
Between her fingers, deft and cool,
The ...

Liza sits upon the milking stool,

Her bent head pressed against the cow;

Between her fingers, deft and cool,

The ...

ALONG the dusty highroad rolled two panting youths and hot;
The sweat streamed from each shining face, there iciness was ...

With eyes that show no pity, no remorse,

The moon looks down upon this lonely glen;

She steals the gold ...

Morn from the East comes dancing through the gate,
Clad all in flowers and decked in lovely white,
Joyous, light-hearted, ...

Proud morning came to wake us, cold and stark;
Her naked face was raw, her hand was chill;
She made ...

Away in the green glen a streamlet’s song,

As it chatters and bubbles the stones among,

Proclaims “I live!” as ...

Away in the green glen a streamlet’s song,
As it chatters and bubbles the stones among,
Proclaims “I live!” as ...

The ravages of winter seam her face

Where tears like mountain becks once coursed her cheek,

But still there lingers ...

Oh, Ellan Vannin calls to me

Across the intervening sea

With a seductive voice.

Where’er my labour turns my feet,...

They shot Brown Willy here !  Now, why did they?

Could bullet singing home and tearing flesh

Atone for what ...

Oh, mountain tarn, I dare to venture near
Thy grassy rim and stand amid the reeds
Knee-high, and look into ...

MUD, thick and black, heaves all around and hems
One little solid spot; and germs infest
Its slimy depths, with ...

When steals sweet music through the summer night,

All other noises hushed and men at rest,

Passion forgotten and all ...

The day was fair, the sun was warm,

And I for once was free from work.

Nature looked innocent of ...

I do not know a sweeter sound

Than rain upon a thirsty ground;

A lovelier sight I’ll never see

Than ...

The nettles grow thickly where man has been,

Lapping the walls with an ocean of green;

Nodding and rustling in ...

DOWN in the darkened glen
Fell demons brood,
Waiting to ensnare all men
Who would intrude
On their solitude.

Gaunt ...

The highroad breasts the hill and climbing higher,

Runs on a level course where houses stand

In a grey terrace ...

The grey sea drains the evening sky of light,

And saps the sun-given vigour of the air,

To make it ...

(The tenth of the Black Hole Ballads)

ONCE the Bishop of Sodor and Man
A trip on the briny did ...

No more by the light of the harvest moon

Do they glean in the stubble fields;

No more in the ...

Whether to cut the string and gain release

Quickly, or patiently undo the knots?

‘Tis a decision on which all ...

(The fourth of the Black Hole Ballads)
(With apologies to Lord Tennyson)

Half an hour, half an hour,
Half an ...

I looked from out my sill one night
And witnessed a surprising sight,
For there was perched a figure in ...

Here where the bees are droning
Around the fuchsia bush,
All, all save their intoning
Is wrapped in evening hush....

(Translation from the French of Th. Gautier)

The sky was dark, the earth was white,
And gaily rang the bells;...

You who prefer the north be not dismayed

That I to the fair realm where southside folk

Dwell in their ...

Not your proud anger me a coward makes,

Nor can your flashing eye or rapier frown

Instil my heart with ...

Oh, month of withered leaves and leaping fires!
Oh, month of tossing seas and storms of hail;
When sun each ...

Life is not three dimensional, nor four,

But five.  We do not just exist in space

And time, but have ...

One drowsy afternoon in summer heat

We came, footsore and weary, parched with thirst,

To where a tiny shop and ...

Now hath the summer gone and autumn come
And old October hath her raiment donned
And gathered tatters for her ...

WHERE thou hast reigned there wilt thou reign again
With greater pomp and splendour in thy train,
Mannanan Beg Mac-Leir!...

(From the French of Henri de Regnier)

If I have Sunday
Of my love, ‘tis to the water slow
Which ...

Deep buried out of sight of men

Under the crust of ages lies

What can bring power and light to ...

Old grandmothers’ tales, say the wise and the clever,
A tissue of lies about happenings that never
Took place on ...

Old water mill, thy lumbering wheel

Still turns in heavy majesty;

Its measured movement may reveal

The sure approach of ...

End and beginning!  We are always on

The razor-edge between the fact and dream,

The dream becoming fact as moments ...

(Apologies to Gray)

Being the Twenty-Fourth of the Black Hole Ballads

‘Twas in the Grammar School’s green yard
Where Sixth ...

(The fourteenth of the Black Hole Ballads)
(With apologies to

Cotton skin, derelict, black,
Painted with witches’ own brew,
Crumpled ...

(With apologies to Keats)

Oft I have heard voices in sung upraised,
Oft have I felt sweet music’s power to ...

Sweet seventeen! Ah, glorious seventeen!
I wellcome thee to join the previous years
And lay thy hand upon me. Thou ...

What feature marks the tragedy of life,

Revealing the dark stream that underlies

The fountain springs of conduct and makes ...

What is achieved without much effort fails,

Although it satisfy immediate needs,

To benefit for long man’s real desire.

We ...

(In memory of John Jabez Quirk)

Ah! He is gone, whom we shall sadly miss.
His voice no longer at ...

O Happy Man! Now art thou blest indeed;
On lists of fame thy name shall hence be scrolled.
I’ll warrant ...

They stand in solemn little groups, the men

With large white hats upon their heads, and nurse

Their wooden piccaninnies ...

The silver sea, the golden sand,

The smiling meadows green and fair;

The beaming sun, the azure sky,

The charmed ...

(The third of the Black Hole Ballads)
(With apologies to a popular song)

Everybody loves our baby but our baby ...

TO Peel to-day
Not the O.K.
But in the car
Of Alan Parr.
A number went
With the intent
Of ...

I set by meself in the outhouse
A-chewin’ a long birra straw;
An’ the averin’s drawin’ in mighty,
So wharram ...

Pain is a signal we cannot ignore,

In no uncertain terms it tells us of need,

And goads the will ...

He comes upon a donkey sat;

Hosannas loud I cry,

And spread my garments at His feet

As He is ...

(With apologies to Milton)

I, who erewhile in happy childhood played
In Ridgeway attics and the quay, now sing
Uncovered ...

Oh, clap your hand, ye people, shout to God
In triumph, for most terrible and high
He sits a mighty ...

Of love my Shepherd is the King,
I shall not want for anything.
In pastures green He makes me lie...

Unto the Lord, oh lands, make joyful noise,
And all ye nations, joyfully now sing;
Know ye, all ye, the ...

Let not a thought pass by unchallenged ; hold

It to attention ; note its form and dress.

Though it ...

(After the Spanish of El Marques de Santillana)

No maiden so fair in the valleys I see,

No maiden so ...

Here, where the road below Slieuwhallian’s flank

Runs out to join the highway heading south

From Peel, we find a ...

The grey bones of the rose plants shiver now,

Stripped by the rough hands of the ruthless air,

Bearing of ...

We were saying, we ten,
Where sea and sand meet,
The world was made for men,
But women keep it ...

Older companion of thy southern friend,
Older by far of the Manx castles twain,
Thy pomp and splendour shall we ...

Red as a garnet in the setting sun

The old cathedral ringed by castle walls

Guards like a sentinel, when ...

The piano notes fall through the air

Soft drops of rain that kiss

My soul and bathe my body

Wash ...

Over my head, where boundless ages are,

A low-pitched droning threads the darkened sky,

Moving across the firmament from pole ...

Stern Bradda with its crowning tower

Stands sentinel

Towards the north,

And guards this westward looking shore;

And none may ...

From upland bourne I gaze

Down on the patchwork fields and scattered farms

To where, muffled in summer haze,

The ...

The long grass that waved so bravely

Head high and haughty in the lush meadow

Shining its green gold in ...

I said, “Let’s all do something dramatic!”
Another, “A play like we did in the attic.”
Then Tom, “Yes, quite ...

The law of all coincidence is strange,
If law there be. Man cannot cut and prune
And shape in figures ...

You who want proof, on what do you rely?

Are you convinced by evidence of sight,

Or touch, or hearing?  ...

Somehow the joy of pulling grass

Is amongst other joys without a peer,

Strange as it seems.

A wayside hedge ...

My father said “Why don’t you write
“A poem that I can recite
In the schoolroom next Thursday night
When ...

Upon a rugged promontry I stood,
And round the wheeling screaming seagulls flew.
The angry surf murmured and frothed below...

RED banners unfurlin the late evening fires
Beyond the etched trees and the golden-tipped spires.
Ablaze as with brands is ...

Whither, O drifting nations, tempest-tost?

Whither thy barques so frail, so uncontrolled?

Is it to reef and shipwreck?  Will mankind...

There are some places which can cast a spell

That does not come from natural scenery.

What is the subtle ...

There is rain on the window and rain on the door;

The garden is swimming in yellows and greens.

Whoever ...

When in clear June the sun spreads on the sea

His first long fingers, rising from his sleep,

The bollards ...

When I see aged men whose eyes are blurred

With years of toil sitting resignedly

And seeing without apprehending all...

(With apologies to Matthew Arnold)

Being the Twentieth of the Black Hole Ballads

STREW on it rubbish, rubbish,
But never ...

Red is the glory of the rising sun

That lifts its face upon the frosty morn,

And red the setting ...

“What can you say of Regaby?”  He smiled,

The old man who, with sickle swift and keen.

Shaved the high ...

THIS was a lovely night! The fresh cold dew
Fell on each forehead like a kiss, with soft
Caressing touch. ...

(From the French of Victor Hugo)

All alone beside the waves

I stood one starry night,

A cloudless sky was ...

Amid the city’s bustle, haste and noise

In lecture room alone I sit, with hands

Upon my brow, and turn ...

(Entered for competition, D.S.S.)

Amid the city’s bustle, haste and noise
In office dark alone I sit, with hands
‘Pon ...

When water falls,

Dropping headlong in abandonment,

Dashing on rocks in ecstasy,

Kissing and sliding on the impersonal walls,

It ...

The Queen was kissed whilst playing whist!
It was a situation!
The kingly Crump with fist did thump
His head ...

Held in the wrinkle of a giant’s skin

Motionless, blue, a port-hole on the sky

Reflecting the high light, a ...

Rosemary, Rosemary,
On the first day I saw thee,
Said I to meself, ‘Go wary
And she’ll be thy Ben-my-Chree!’...

The bells ring out, the banners are unfurled,

Saluting  guns their acclamations fire;

Throughout the land a wave of feeling ...

Sad eyes of little furry creatures

Haunt the mind with an unease;

Life has many sombre features,

Few as harrowing ...

Almost a score of years in hasty flight

Have winged their way into the treasured past,

Leaving but little in ...

The waterlilies floated on the still

Green bosom of the lake, yellow and white

Cups sitting on their rounded velvet ...

Roar on and in thy roaring send to me
A breath of other days, O distant sea!
Throw up thy ...

From the high brow of Snaefell one can see

The island like a ship from stem to stern.

There thrusts ...

From the high brow of Snaefell one can see
The island like a ship from stem to stern.
There thrusts ...

(From the French of John Antoine Nau).

The flat cold oceans a green mirror heave
Beneath the rocks that bord ...

That seagull, perched upon the lamp-post high,

Unconscious of his perfect form and grace,

Is of created things more noble ...

The wind from the west, the tide was high;

The sea-wrack filled the water, made it brown;

The breaking waves ...

Seaward there is but light and the faint plume

Of distant ship low down.  Gales from the west

Have ceased ...

It is most good to feel

Flung salt-spray on the face,

For life becomes more real

When the pulse is ...

I have at last been to the Falls,
The Swallow Falls at Bettys-y-Coed.
We sailed upon the Mona’s Queen,
The ...

When stars are bright and lights are low

I hear at night the undertow.

The distant scream of pebbles round...

When stars are bright
And lights are low
I hear at night
The undertow.
The distant scream
Of pebbles round...

Where my love lies sleeping
I am hast’ning on,
While the shadows round are creeping
I am hast’ning on:
Maybe ...

I hate the Indians and their customs!
I hate their rolling beating drums!
I want the pleasure of an English ...

Over the deserts hot and dry I roam
Trying to recall my memories of home,
Memories that blaze in radiant ...

O glade of lapping water, rustling trees,

Of rich green grass, of ferns and gay bluebells

Pale primroses bejewelling tiny ...

(The second of the Black Hole Ballads)
(With apologies to R.L. Stevenson)

Under a wide and starry sky
Dig the ...

My muse she is leaning
Where once she did reap,
She halts at her gleaning
To weep.

My muse is ...

If I should speak and thereby cause a smile,

Secret, covert, to light the listener’s face,

Suspicion flames within me, ...

SIXTY NINTH SONNE

I love the scent of loamy soil, the smell
Of the cool earth when turned beneath the ...

Not for my eyes are Arcadia’s fountains
When I am tired and sore depressed.
Not for my feet are Alpine ...

HAST heard the lilting tune
Of songs beneath the moon,
The songs with which the dumb things all resound?
The ...

The wind is sighing low
With music soft and slow
Through the bare stunted branches of the trees;
And like ...

Here falls the light unstained by glass

In a white flood in grass

And only shadows pass.

Birds on ...

The galaxies of silver gleams

That deck the drapery of night

And shed upon the forest streams

Their powdering of ...

Oh, the sun, the beauteous sun
When o’er dusky shade hath won,
Colouring where the flowers run,
Ripening the berry....

I said to myself, “There’s a star,
“Yet the ordinary man in the street
Will complain of the cold
And ...

Clip clop, up and down

We jerk and roll to Castletown;

Ruts, mounds, holes and stones

Give a shaking to ...

Oh, the sun, the glorious sun,

When o’er dusky shade hath won,

Colouring where the flowers run,

Ripening the berry;...