Poems (Greenwell)/The Irish Emigrant's Song
THE IRISH EMIGRANT'S SONG.
FOR MUSIC.
Alone—amid the darkening woods I hear them lightly pass,
And in the twilight little feet come stealing o'er the grass;
Kind voices rise when all is still, and call me by my name.
And pleasant faces look on me from out the Pine wood flame:
Oh! my Brothers and my Sisters, how I miss you here alone!
Oh, Father and my Mother dear, do you think upon your own?
Who prays for you each night and morn[1]—Och hone! Och hone!
Thinking on the days that are long enough agone!
And in the twilight little feet come stealing o'er the grass;
Kind voices rise when all is still, and call me by my name.
And pleasant faces look on me from out the Pine wood flame:
Oh! my Brothers and my Sisters, how I miss you here alone!
Oh, Father and my Mother dear, do you think upon your own?
Who prays for you each night and morn[1]—Och hone! Och hone!
Thinking on the days that are long enough agone!
I sit beside the mighty stream that rolls down like a sea,
And think upon the Burn-side where my true love sat by me!
Where we said our sad and parting words the evening of the day,
The last I spent with them I loved before I came away;
Where my little Kathleen sat by me, her hand within my own,
And wept to think that I should go so far away alone;
It seems to me I see her still—Och hone! Och hone!
Thinking of the days that are long enough agone!
And think upon the Burn-side where my true love sat by me!
Where we said our sad and parting words the evening of the day,
The last I spent with them I loved before I came away;
Where my little Kathleen sat by me, her hand within my own,
And wept to think that I should go so far away alone;
It seems to me I see her still—Och hone! Och hone!
Thinking of the days that are long enough agone!
No more the thousand welcomes send their music to my heart,
No more the kind "Heaven prosper ye!" when kindred meet and part;
Amid the trackless forest-wilds a lonely man I stray,
Where never word of greeting comes to cheer me on my way;
Far from the looks I love the best, from each familiar tone,
Here must I live and labour on, alone—alone!
Yet I work, I work and pray for them—Och hone! Och hone!
Thinking on the days that are long enough agone!
No more the kind "Heaven prosper ye!" when kindred meet and part;
Amid the trackless forest-wilds a lonely man I stray,
Where never word of greeting comes to cheer me on my way;
Far from the looks I love the best, from each familiar tone,
Here must I live and labour on, alone—alone!
Yet I work, I work and pray for them—Och hone! Och hone!
Thinking on the days that are long enough agone!
- ↑ The burden of this song is that of a very ancient Irish ditty.—See Lockhart's Life of Scott.