An Old Woman of the Roads
Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)
O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
To have a clock with weights and chains
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store!
I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining delph!
Och! but I'm weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there's never a house nor bush,
And tired I am of bog and road,
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!
And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house - a house of my own
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 140 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXA XBCB DEXE XCXC XXXX XDXD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 874 |
Words | 178 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"An Old Woman of the Roads" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28439/an-old-woman-of-the-roads>.
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