Fisherman’s Cottage on the Cliffs at Var

Art Print

Monet, Claude


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An Old Woman of the Roads
by Padraic Colum

O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods upon 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.

Since I’m reading Padraic Colum’s book of Greek hero tales for my Newbery book for this next week, I thought a bit of his poetry might be a Friday treat. Colum was an Irish folklorist, a playwright, an author of cildren’s books. He was also a friend of James Joyce. He typed part of the manuscript of Finnegan’s Wake for Joyce, and Joyce praised Colum’s poetry. I think Monet’s cottage goes well with the poem, don’t you? I’m sure it was just such a house the old woman was longing for as she travelled on her weary way.

Susan has the Poetry Friday round-up for today.

And don’t forget to leave a link to your book review(s) for this week —tomorrow here at Semicolon.