Achill Girl's Song

By Padraic Colum

FROM THE IRISH

I’d bring you these for dowry

A field from heather free,

White sheep upon the mountain,

And calves that follow me.

I saw you by the well-side

Upon Saint Finnian's Day;

I thought you'd come and ask for me

But you kept far away.

Oh, if you ask not for me,

But leave me here instead,

The petticoat in dye-pot here

Will never fast its red

For me upon the well-slope

To wear on Finnian's Day

My dress will be the sheet bleached there,

My place, below the clay!