W. T. Quirk – Manx Poet & Writer

When drought was on the land the water shrank

In Baldwin valley, and the hidden ooze

Rose into sight behind ...

The cold flat oceans a green mirror heave

Beneath the rocks that bord a dreary land.

A sea-gull wings the ...

More gorgeous citadels than man can build,

Can build, or plan, bolder in sheer design

Than all his most advanced ...

It stands half hidden in the brambles tall

Where honeysuckle and the wild rose grow,

A rusty iron wicket, old ...

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 ...

Down in the wheatfield where the poppies burn

We gather arms of corn, and laugh and shout,

And chase the ...

Swart as the eyes of gypsies, indigo

Clusters of droplets on the trailing vines,

The wild fruit of the bramble ...

Between two ranks of craning necks they come,

The cavalcade of grim determined cheer

In all its panoply of colours ...

The yellow sunlight mocks her tangled hair,

Threading with callous gold disordered curls,

And with derisive finger strokes her cheek....

Like some great submarine it marks the bay,

This hulk of rock awash when tide is high,

Lurking below the ...

The drowsy valley lay in mid-day sun,

Its winding road was dusty in the heat;

The grassy slopes were innocent ...

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 ...

They hang their heads as if in prayer, their ears

Laid back in docile meekness, and their eyes

Closed against ...

I sit behind the wheel and watch the flow

Of cottages and trees, hedges and grass;

Nocturnal dogs and cats ...

Of February I was wont to think

With shudders and a spirit-chilling sense

Of death and barrenness and crumbling mould...

The fishermen when evening falls put out

In their small craft to grace the open sea

And leave the safety ...

They then inscribed the legend “King of Jews”

Where He was hanging from a wooden cross,

Crucified on a hill ...

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 ...

Her mild blue eyes in which there lurked such fun,

Set wide beneath her brow so smooth and white,

Could ...

The mountain is a yawning gulf, a well

Of blackest night that opens on the sky

To swallow all the ...

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

Could bullet singing home and tearing flesh

Atone for what ...

The grey sea drains the evening sky of light,

And saps the sun-given vigour of the air,

To make it ...

They stand in solemn little groups, the men

With large white hats upon their heads, and nurse

Their wooden piccaninnies ...

Over my head, where boundless ages are,

A low-pitched droning threads the darkened sky,

Moving across the firmament from pole ...

Whither, O drifting nations, tempest-tost?

Whither thy barques so frail, so uncontrolled?

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

When I see aged men whose eyes are blurred

With years of toil sitting resignedly

And seeing without apprehending all...

Red is the glory of the rising sun

That lifts its face upon the frosty morn,

And red the setting ...

Held in the wrinkle of a giant’s skin

Motionless, blue, a port-hole on the sky

Reflecting the high light, a ...

The bells ring out, the banners are unfurled,

Saluting  guns their acclamations fire;

Throughout the land a wave of feeling ...

The wind from the west, the tide was high;

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

The breaking waves ...

The air a tension held; the trees were mute,

The bracken stood immobile in a spell.

Birdsong was choked, a ...

So rapt in contemplation is the soul

Of the true artist he feels not the shock

Of hostile elements.  The ...

They split the rocks, these giant cracks, as though

Atlas or Vulcan had with irate hand

When earth was young ...

What can we know of farmers and their needs,

We in our ordered life and routine round,

Controlled by clock ...

Why should I grieve when children look away,

Avoiding the direct and steady gaze

That all too clearly shows their ...

“MY SOUL” said Mary, “magnifies the Lord.

My spirit doth in Saviour God rejoice;

For notice hath He ta’en of ...

Let it be said, there is no virtue now

In living as our grandsires did of yore,

In ignorance and ...

Rare is it now to see a horse and cart.

This age of petrol finds no useful place

For a ...

Low rumbling and high splashing noises fill

This ancient building with its knotted floor

And ceiling beams that brush a ...

Destroy what is incomprehensible !

Erase the writing that can give the lie !

Ignore, decry, but do not reason ...

Oh, peerless climber into heaven’s blue,

I hark enthralled to your bubbling song,

And watch your fluttering wings as you ...

(Died October 29th, 1897)

See’st thou this bulb?  It is a miracle !

Here is compact a force man cannot ...

Off from the Grandstand, dropping down Bray Hill,

Rounding the Quarter Bridge, to Ballacraine,

Weaving Glen Helen and the northern ...

Tourist Trophy Races

Off from the Grandstand, dropping down Bray Hill,

Rounding the Quarter Bridge, to Ballacraine,

Weaving Glen Helen ...

A perfect marriage when two rivers meet

Is consummated; each to each a force

Contributes, each to each a nature ...

There is no way to capture beauty so

That beauty will remain vivid and fresh.

When we have grasped her ...

To-night I smelt the smoke of a woodland fire.

Sudden and bitter-sweet to me it came,

Acrid and pungent, pricking ...