Old Clo'

Francis Ledwidge

110

I was just coming in from the garden,

Or about to go fishing for eels,

And, smiling, I asked you to pardon

My boots very low at the heels.

And I thought that you never would go,

As you stood in the doorway ajar,

For my heart would keep saying, "Old Clo',

You're found out at last as you are."

I was almost ashamed to acknowledge

That I was the quarry you sought,

For was I not bred in a college

And reared in a mansion, you thought.

And now in the latest style cut

With fortune more kinder I go

To welcome you half-ways. Ah ( but

I was nearer the gods when " Old Clo'."

This poem taken from "Last Songs" by Francis Ledwidge, Published by Herbert Jenkins, London 1918 page 20-21probable date of writing 1916checked and verified JS