BLACK SILE OF THE SILVER EYE

As I rode down to Gartan fair

I met a girl upon the way:

The winter night was on her hair,

The summer dawn was in her eye.

And O, she stepped with such a gait,

And bore her round black head so high,

And tossed it so, I knew her straight

For Sile of the Silver Eye.

“God save you, Sile, love,” says I:

“God save you kindly,” murmured she —

And love was welling in her eye

As she dropped me the courtesy.

The mountain boys upon the road

Were at themselves for jealousy

When they saw Seamus win the nod

From Sile of the Silver Eye.

We rode together to the fair,

We danced together on the green;

And, faith, they say a suppler pair

Was ne'er before a piper seen.

Black Sile of the Silver Eye

Has been my wife for twenty year,

And still her sloe-black head is high,

And still her eye is silver clear.

And, God be praised, we have a girl,

As like her as like well can be —

The round black head, the roguish curl,

The soft tongue and the silver eye.

God bless the old, God bless the new,

And send them stout posterity —

Old Sile and young Sile, too —

Both “Sile of the Silver Eye!”