Michael Earls Hear Poems
- 1. My Father's Tunes
My father had the gay good tunes, the like you'd seldom hear,
A whole day could he whistle them, an' thin he'd up an' sing,
The merry tunes an' twists o'them that suited all the year,
An' you wouldn't ask but listen if yourself stood there a king.
... - 2. On A Train
But a fortnight later, by an autumn tree,
Aileen and her brother came my way,
And another, glad to tell the names of them and me,
And to hear how travellers can play.
... - 3. A Winter Minster
(For Fr. C. L. O'Donnell)
The interlacing trees
... - 4. Old Hudson Rovers
Send us back the olden knights, tell no law to track 'em,
Give to boy and maid the storytellers as of yore,
Millionaires in legend-wealth, though no bank would back 'em,
But old Benny Havens by the West Point Shore.
... - 5. The Bonnie Prince O' Spring
The little green soldiers are here at last,
With their waving blades and spears;
And across the hills they are marching fast
With the drill of a thousand years:
... - 6. The Drummer Boy
You never know when war may come,
And that is why I keep a drum:
For if all sudden in the night
From east or west came battle fright,
...
