Raglan Road

Patrick KavanaghPatrick Kavanagh

1 min read · 12.4K reads

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay -
O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of MayOn a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay -
When the angel woos the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.
Patrick Kavanagh
About the poet

Patrick Kavanagh

1904 - 1967/IrishKavanagh was born on the 21st of October 1904, in the village of Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan. His father was a shoemaker and had a small farm of land. Kavanagh received only primary school education and at the age of thirteen, he became an appren…

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More from Patrick Kavanagh

  1. Stony Grey Soil

    O stony grey soil of MonaghanThe laugh from my love you thieved;You took the gay child of my passionAnd gave me your clod-conceived. You clogged the feet of my boyhoodAnd I believed that my stumbleHad the poise and stride of ApolloAnd his voice my thick tongued mumble. You told me the plough was immortal!O green-life conquering plough!The mandril stained, your coulter bluntedIn the smooth lea-field of my brow. You sang on steaming dunghillsA song of cowards' brood,You perfumed my clothes with weasel itch,You fed me on swinish food You flung a ditch on my visionOf beauty, love and truth.O stony grey soil of MonaghanYou burgled my bank of youth! Lost the long hours of pleasureAll the women that love young men.O can I stilll stroke the monster's backOr write with unpoisoned pen. His name in these lonely versesOr mention the dark fields whereThe first gay flight of my lyricGot caught in a peasant's prayer. Mullahinsa, Drummeril, Black Shanco-Wherever I turn I seeIn the stony grey soil of MonaghanDead loves that were born for me.

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  2. Come Dancing with Kitty Stobling

    No, no, no, I know I was not important as I movedThrough the colourful country, I was but a singleItem in the picture, the name, not the beloved.O tedious man with whom no gods commingle.Beauty, who has described beauty?  Once upon a timeI had a myth that was a lie but it served:Trees walking across the crest of hills and my rhymeCavorting on mile-high stilts and the unnervedCrowds looking up with terror in their rational faces.O dance with Kitty Stobling I outrageouslyCried out-of-sense to them, while their timorous pacesStumbled behind Jove's page boy paging me.I had a very pleasant journey, thank you sincerelyFor giving me my madness back, or nearly.-Patrick KavanaghCopyright © Estate of Katherine Kavanagh

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  3. Innocence

    They laughed at one I loved-The triangular hill that hungUnder the Big Forth. They saidThat I was bounded by the whitethorn hedgesOf the little farm and did not know the world.But I knew that love's doorway to lifeIs the same doorway everywhere.Ashamed of what I lovedI flung her from me and called her a ditchAlthough she was smiling at me with violets. But now I am back in her briary armsThe dew of an Indian Summer liesOn bleached potato-stalksWhat age am I? I do not know what age I am,I am no mortal age;I know nothing of women, Nothing of cities,I cannot die Unless I walk outside these whitethorn hedges.

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  4. Shancoduff

    Shancoduff My black hills have never seen the sun rising,Eternally they look North towards Armagh.Lot's wife would not be salt if she had beenIncurious as my black hills that are happyWhen dawn whitens Glassdrummond chapel. My hills hoard the bright shillings of MarchWhile the sun searches in every pocket.They are my Alps and I have climbed the MatterhornWith a sheaf of hay for three perishing calvesIn the field under the Big Forth of Rocksavage. The sleety winds ****** the the rushy beards of ShancoduffWhile the cattle - drovers sheltering in the Featherna BushLook up and say: "Who owns them hungry hillsThat the water - hen and snip must have forsaken?A poet? Then by heavens he must be poor."I hear and is my heart not badly shaken?

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  5. On An Apple-Ripe September Morning

    On an apple-ripe September morningThrough the mist-chill fields I went

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