Elizabeth Bewick
'Sweet and Harsh, Harsh and Sweet'
(for Lorraine Curtis)
I stand by his stone in the graveyard
where the air is harsh and sweet,
the wind blows off the Atlantic
to the sound of dancing feet,
and the words of the greatest poet
in Ireland's pattern of rhyme
ring round on the hills like chanting
to last till the end of time.
The clouds lie low on Ben Bulben
where their shadows race and play,
and the hurt of a hundred years lives on
in the setting of today;
my heart is full of his sorrow,
my head is heavy with pain,
his words wring the core of pity dry
that waits for the gentle rain.
Gorse blazes from the hedgerows
as the low stone walls run down
to the brooding sea beneath them
and on into Sligo town;
my candle burns by the limestone cross,
winds lift it heaven–high,
sun lights the distant pathway
and the horseman passes by.
where the air is harsh and sweet,
the wind blows off the Atlantic
to the sound of dancing feet,
and the words of the greatest poet
in Ireland's pattern of rhyme
ring round on the hills like chanting
to last till the end of time.
The clouds lie low on Ben Bulben
where their shadows race and play,
and the hurt of a hundred years lives on
in the setting of today;
my heart is full of his sorrow,
my head is heavy with pain,
his words wring the core of pity dry
that waits for the gentle rain.
Gorse blazes from the hedgerows
as the low stone walls run down
to the brooding sea beneath them
and on into Sligo town;
my candle burns by the limestone cross,
winds lift it heaven–high,
sun lights the distant pathway
and the horseman passes by.
Page(s) 18
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