Selkie
He fell in love with a selkie-girl
by the shores of the waving sea
where the winds are trick and the moonbeams curl
in frenzied lunacy;
she danced on the wave with flawless grace
and she sang with the voice of a bird
but fairest of all were the eyes of her face,
which could rob Irish tongues of their words.
By the shores of the waving sea
lived the man with his selkie-wife
but neither steel nor love nor powers that be
can bind such a girl to that life;
for as sure as summer to autumn descends,
as sure as the lunatic raves,
as sure as the river to sea-tide wends,
so the selkie to the salt-drunken waves,
and love of a life to sorrow must fall,
leaving nothing but sadness and ache;
where breakers crash and seagulls call
the selkie-girls catch hearts to break.
Youth and Age
'Youth is wasted on the young'--
this is spoken as if truth,
but it is not true;
the young are wasted on their youth--
this holds a better clue
through mazy paths, and if we are bold
we will find an even better saying writ:
youth is only wasted on the old,
for the young do not yet remember it,
nor can they, as each day turns,
look back and learn from it,
its balms and burns.
