april 15 {the poem project}

15.

ON RAGLAN ROAD
(Air: The Dawning of the Day)
On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion’s pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay—
O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that’s known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May.

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay—
When the angel woos the clay he’d lose his wings at the dawn of day.
Patrick Kavanagh

I first heard the song version of this poem by Joan Osborne, and from the first it struck me as haunting, and the lyrics waaaay above most lyrical standards. Figures it was a poem! I’ve stood on Grafton Street now. While the whole thing feels indecipherable and ethereal, perhaps the narrator is a bit full of himself to say he is the angel and she is the clay! Still, what magical internal rhyme!