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James Stephens

James Stephens

Blue-Blood

We thought at first, this man is a king for sure,
Or the branch of a mighty and ancient and famous lineage’€”
That silly, sulky, illiterate, black-avised boor
Who was hatched by foreign vulgarity under a hedge.
 
 
The good men of Clare were drinking his health in a flood,
And gazing with me in awe at the princely lad,
And asking each other from what bluest blueness of blood
His daddy was squeezed, and the pa and the da of his dad?
 
 
We waited there, gaping and wondering, anxiously,
Until he’d stop eating and let the glad tidings out,
And the slack-jawed booby proved to the hilt that he
Was lout, son of lout, by old lout, and was da to a lout!

#Irish

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Other works by James Stephens...
The Cow

Cow, Cow! I and thou Are looking at each other’s eyes You are lying on the grass Eating every time I pass,
In the Poppy Field

Mad Patsy said, he said to me, That every morning he could see An angel walking on the sky; Across the sunny skies of morn He threw great handfuls far and ni…
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The Shell

AND then I pressed the shell Close to my ear And listened well, And straightway like a bell Came low and clear
Strict Joy

To-day i felt as poor O’Brien did When, turning from all else that w… He took himself to that which was… —He took him to his verse—for othe… And (tho’ man will crave and seek)
April Showers

The leaves are fresh after the rai… The air is cool and clear, The sun is shining warm again, The sparrows hopping in the lane Are brisk and full of cheer.
The Fifteen Acres

I cling and swing On a branch, or sing Through the cool, clear hush of M… Or fling my wing On the air, and bring
Behind the Hill

Behind the hill I met a man in gr… Who asked me if my mother had gone… I said she had. He asked me had I… His castle where the people sing a… From dawn to dark, and told me tha…
Breakfast Time

The sun is always in the sky Whenever I get out of bed, And I often wonder why It’s never late.—My sister said She did not know who did the trick…
The Daisies

In the scented bud of the morning–… When the windy grass went rippling… I saw my dear one walking slow In the field where the daisies are… We did not laugh and we did not sp…
A Visit From Abroad

A speck went blowing up against th… As little as a leaf: then it drew… And broadened.—' It’s a bird,' sa… And fetched my bow and arrows. It… It grew up from a speck into a blo…
In the Orchard

There was a giant by the Orchard… Peeping about on this side and on… And feeling in the trees: he was a… As the big apple tree, and twice a… His beard was long, and bristly-bl…
Westland Row

Every Sunday there’s a throng Of pretty girls, who trot along In a pious, breathless state (They are nearly always late) To the Chapel, where they pray
Check

The night was creeping on the grou… She crept and did not make a sound Until she reached the tree, and th… She covered it, and sole again Along the grass beside the wall.
The Lonely God

So Eden was deserted, and at eve Into the quiet place God came to… His face was sad, His hands hung… Along his robe; too sorrowful to f… He paced along the grassy paths an…
 1
The Spring in Ireland: 1916

Do not forget my charge I beg of… That of what flow’rs you find of f… And sweetest odor you do gather th… Are best of all the best—a fragran… A tall calm lily from the watersid…



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