John Keegan Casey

My Cailin Ruadh.

My fairy girl, my darling girl,

            If I were near thee now,

The sunlight of your eyes would chase

            The sorrow from my brow;

Your lips would whisper o’er and o’er

            The words so fond and true,

They whispered long and long ago,

            My gentle Cailin Ruadh.

No more by Inny’s bank I sit,

            Or rove the meadows brown,

But count the weary hours away

            Pent in this dismal town;

I cannot breathe the pasture air,

            My father’s homestead view,

Or see another face like thine,

            My gentle Cailin Ruadh.

Thy laugh was like the echo sent

            From Oonagh’s crystal hall;

Thy eyes the moonlight’s flashing glance

            Upon a waterfall;

Thy hair the amber clouds at eve,

            When lovers haste to woo;

Thy teeth Killarney’s snowy pearls,

            My gentle Cailin Ruadh.

O sweetheart! I can see thee stand

            Beside the orchard stile,

The dawn upon thy regal brow,

            Upon thy mouth a smile;

The apple-bloom above thy head,

            Thy cheeks its glowing hue,

The sunflash in thy radiant eyes,

            My gentle Cailin Ruadh.

But drearily and wearily

            The snow is drifting by,

And drearily and wearily

            It bears my lonely sigh

Far from this lonely Connaught town,

            To Inny’s wave of blue,

To the homestead in the fairy glen,

            And gentle Cailin Ruadh.