Lyr Req/ADD: A Drover (poem by Padraic Colum)

Subject: The Drover
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 11:45 AM

Not a song but a poem. Has anyone got an online source for this poem, which starts:

"From Meath of the pastures
To wet hills by the sea
Through Leitrim and Longford
Go my cattle and me"

I just can't track it down.

Subject: Lyr Req: The Drover
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 11:58 AM

Is this all of it?

The Drover
Padraic Colum

To Meath of the pastures,
From wet hills by the sea
Through Leitrim and Longford,
Go my cattle and me.

I hear in the darkness
Their slipping and breathing--
I name them the by-ways
They're to pass without heeding;

Then the wet, winding roads,
Brown bogs with black water,
And my thoughts on white ships
And the King o' Spain's daughter.

(That's all I could find)

Subject: ADD: A Drover (poem by Padraic Colum)
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 07 Apr 01 - 04:06 AM

Found it! Sorry for the different heading, but the Digitrad SEarch wasn't working.

I love this poem, and wonder why no one's ever put it to music; it is so evocative of the feeling of a man for his animals, and the landscape of Ireland - and every Celt who ever breathed will identify with the love of cattle.

I remember as a child walking on a country road and wrinkling my nose to sneeze. The old man who was walking with me thought I was wrinkling it against the smell of cowpats we were following, and snatched at my arm. "Draw in your breath, child, and smell that smell," he said in his hoarse old voice (I still remember his smell of turf smoke, beasts and Sweet Afton cigarettes), "That's the smell of riches, for where you have cattle you have riches."

A DROVER
(Padraic Colum)

To Meath of the pastures,
From wet hills by the sea,
Through Leitrim and Longford,
Go my cattle and me.

I hear in the darkness
Their slipping and breathing -
I name them the bye-ways
They're to pass without heeding;

Then, the wet, winding roads,
Brown bogs with black water;
And my thoughts on white ships
And the King o' Spain's daughter.

O! farmer, strong farmer!
You can spend at the fair;
But your face you must turn
To your crops and your care.

And soldiers - red soldiers!
You've seen many lands;
But you walk two by two,
And by captain's commands.

O! the smell of the beasts,
The wet wind in the morn;
And the proud and hard earth
Never broken for corn;

And the crowds at the fair,
The herds loosened and blind,
Loud words and dark faces
And the wild blood behind.

(O! strong men; with your best
I would strive breast to breast,
I could quiet your herds
With my words, with my words.)

I will bring you, my kine,
Where there's grass to the knee;
But you'll think of scant croppings
Harsh with salt of the sea.

Padraic Colum [1881-1972]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Drover
From: GUEST,Erin Hart
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 11:21 AM

Pat Egan of Chulrua recorded a song version of this poem on THE SINGING KETTLE (http://www.paddyobrien.net/chulrua-the-singing-kettle/)

Erin Hart

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Drover
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 11:22 AM

Meant to make the link live...

http://www.paddyobrien.net/chulrua-the-singing-kettle/