All day I played, and grew with the flowers, (Ireland's hedges are white in May!) Laughed with the sunlight, cried with the showers, Loud sang my merry heart, "Life is play!" I wedded a maid when the shamrock was green, (Blue were her eyes as the June sky above!) I was a king and she was a queen, Low whispered heart on heart "Life is love!" I knelt by the side of her empty bed, (Ireland was gray in the autumn rain.) God and the world far away with my dead, -- "Sure," said my breaking heart, "Life is pain." All day I sit by the peat-fire's glow; (Frosty and raw is Ireland's breath.) Little reck I of the damp or the blow, Peace keeps my tired heart, "Life is death." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPITAPH by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE PENITENTIAL PSALM by THOMAS WYATT BIRDS OF PASSAGE: PRELUDE by MATHILDE BLIND TO MISS CRUIKSHANK, A SCHOOLGIRL by ROBERT BURNS THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESSE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER |