W. T. Quirk – Manx Poet & Writer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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

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

Illiam:

Many the nights we two have spent like ...

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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

Gaunt ...

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

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

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

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

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

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 French of John Antoine Nau).

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

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

SIXTY NINTH SONNE

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

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

PART 3.

And the next day before a ray
Of sun was on the world,
The King was up, no ...

Another year hangs on the line,
The sagging line of worn-out years;
A thousand there, and twenty nine
Since One ...

(From the French of Anatole France)

Slow are my feet from cottage to the sea,
And weariness is ever mine. ...

The merry knave did misbehave
With Blanche the kitchen servant.
We must suppose he bit her nose
In loving way ...

RAIN on the window and the lone wind sighing,
Sighing in the branches of the gaunt old elm-tree;
Sighing and ...

Could I with half thy skill render my thought
In verse then were I blest indeed, and more –
I ...

If stars were gold dust sprinkled on a bed
Of purple velvet, and the moon a disc
Of pure white ...

Upon the warm brown rocks where we
sat watching silver spary,
Where sea-gulls wheeled and breezes blew
a golden sun-beam ...

Still finger pointing to the frosty stars
From out the glare and seething life below,
Grim and clear-cut against the ...