The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #35481   Message #3404719
Posted By: maeve
14-Sep-12 - 03:35 PM
Thread Name: W. CORK(IRL) songs-Plains of Drishane
Subject: RE: LYR ADD "Plains of Drishane"
Found here:
http://comhaltasarchive.ie/compositions/52
   

    The Plains of Drishane      

    Oh one morning bright as Phoebus shone quite illuminative
    When Flora's decorations had painted the green
    With footsteps quite unwavered—from Millstreet I roamed Eastward
    To view the navigation of that pleasing grand scene
    Absorbed in meditation—I pondered in amazement,
    Admiring each plantation and far spreading lawn,
    That have won such admiration for this far famed dwelling station,
    Whose proper appelation—or name—is Drishane.

    There's a mill for grinding corn and an engine ploughing the farm,
    Fine oxen that are stall fed, the largest to be found:
    And the yard resounds with screech of guinea-hen and peacock.
    The swan upon the lake and he sailin' all around.
    The lime-kilns are kept blazing with columns most unsparing,
    While to distant lands reclaiming the same has been drawn:
    And quarrying operations with loud reverberations,
    But harmoney's prevailing through the plains of Drishane.

    And her trees they are the fairest and the loftiest in the nation—
    The branching oak most stately, it grown there in its prime.
    The sycamore adjacent, the ash no less inferior,
    The fir so elevated and the shady black pine.
    The apple tree in season, the cherry in rotation:
    The laurel green, the hazel and the far spreading palm.
    With the height of emulation they're all growing quite spontaneous—
    Those green fields decorating round the plains of Drishane.

    And the castle is most famous, it's a tower that's built so ancient
    Upon a solid basis most permanent and sound.
    It has baffled molestations and Cromwell's aspirations,
    Though other towers were taken or levelled to the ground.
    From its summit elevated you can see the Reeks so famous,
    And the Galtees tho' far eastwards their shape it may be drawn,
    Likewise the peaks of Mangerton and many other places,
    All meriting great praises for this place called Drishane.

    And the strangers from all quarters while passing through her borders,
    Along by the Blackwater to Killarney by train
    All ponder in amazement whilst on it they are grazing,
    And their footseps east retracing they may view the same again.
    Those benevolent grand strangers all boasting of its praises,
    In all these foreign places, Spain, Germany and Gaul,
    And with kindest approbation they candidly declare that
    For grandeur it has taken the sway from them all.