With no St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Thurles this year, we bring you a reminder of the parade in 2019, and wish all our readers “Lá fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh! “, (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!).
Keeping two dates in mind; International Women’s Day, which we celebrated on March 8th last, and today, St. Patrick’s Day; we have chosen an extract from a poem by that great poetess Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna,whose work back in Victorian England, focused on promoting women’s rights. Married twice, Charlotte, who died of cancer, resided for a time in Co. Kilkenny and Co. Westmeath, before undertaking charity work in the Irish ghetto in London.
St. Patrick’s Day: With an Irish Shamrock.
By Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna[1790 – 1846].
From the region of zephyrs,* the Emerald isle, The land of thy birth, in my freshness I come, To waken this long-cherished morn with a smile, And breathe o’er thy spirit the whispers of home. O welcome the stranger from Erin’s green sod; I sprang where the bones of thy fathers repose, I grew where thy free step in infancy trod, Ere the world threw around thee its wiles and its woes. But sprightlier themes Enliven the dreams, My dew-dropping leaflets unfold to impart: To loftiest emotion Of patriot devotion, I wake the full chord of an Irishman’s heart……
[* In European tradition, a zephyr is a light wind or a west wind, named after the Greek god Zephyrus, latter a representation of the west wind in human form.]
Adieu, my pet. ‘Twas well we met And well we’ll part to meet again. No tears shall fall, Joy overall, For what has been Will be again. Adieu, fair maid. The years Shall fade, But friendship’s hands shall clasp again. Adieu my pet ‘Twas well we met And well we’ll part, To meet again.
An embrace by Suir River, One evening in time, Young lovers together, In love’s perfect rhyme. Two young souls embracing, As the evening stood still In salute to the wonder, Sweet haunting me still. What mysterious other, So charmed my young heart, Its miraculous mystery, That shall never depart, Oh, hazel-eyed beauty, Sweet mistress of charms, Then, now and forever, To dwell in my arms. Oh dear heart of heaven, My soul now on fire, Enchantment your presence, Oh wild, wild desire, My hazel eyed darling, My day and my night, Enthralling and calling, To dreams of delight. A love that was born, That time long ago, By the banks of Suir River, Where young lovers go. Not now but forever, Till love is no more, Shall we be together, As that time by sweet Suir. Oh memory eternal, Sweet love of our youth, This is my abiding, My magnificent truth! Oh beautiful memory That never shall go, Sure as this love’s forever, Sure as Suir waters must flow.
END.
Tom Ryan, “Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Mysterious notes so charm my Celtic heart. Sad, sombre, beautiful, merry, free. Thoughts, sentiments of fellow Gaels that dart Through my soul – fine melodic history. The music makers – dead – still haunt with joy, Kickham, Davis, Moore – that legion of repute Whose notes of majesty will live for aye, To make the cripple dance and dare the mute. To nerve the shattered soldier – fast refrain. To melt the hardened heart, a song of woe. Such fire to stop a regiment in its train And cause the flickering heart once more to glow. The music of a nation strong and proud, Fiery as flames and sombre as grey clouds. END
From “Cherry Blossoms”by Tom Ryan, “Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
According to Ireland’s meteorology service, Met Éireann, our provisional weather data shows that the Autumn of 2021 was the warmest on record. The temperature between the start of September and the end of November averaged at 12.02°; 1.8° degrees above average, making it the 11th consecutive year where Irish temperatures increased above our norm. A bitterly cold northern breeze this afternoon has now changed all that, with temperatures reduced to 6.00°.
Meanwhile, poking about in the garden today, I find that the daffodils bulbs, while arriving a month later this year, are now rapidly emerging above ground.
Their arrival always reminds me of that wonderful poetry of American Poetess Emily Dickinson, (December 10th, 1830 – May 15th, 1886). Emily, who choose to live much of her life in isolation, once stated that she was “a lunatic on bulbs”; same statement referring to her absolute passion for daffodils and other spring perennials, which she grew at her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.
American Poetess Ms Emily Dickinson
Her poem “Perhaps You’d Like To Buy A Flower?” shown hereunder, fully confirms her true love of gardening and flowers and possibly reveals, for the first time, the secret feelings of all passionate gardeners.
Perhaps You’d Like To Buy A Flower?
Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower? But I could never sell. If you would like to borrow Until the daffodil Unties her yellow bonnet Beneath the village door, Until the bees, from clover rows Their Hock and Sherry draw, Why, I will lend until just then, But not an hour more! END
The word ‘Hock’, contained in the poem above, refers to a British term for German white wine, made from an aromatic grape variety grown in the Rhine region.
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