Pleasant it is to rest behind
A hedge on an autumn day
And list’ to the sweet things hedge and wind
To each other say.
Their sayings I cannot comprehend
Completely, nor in part;
But the autumn song of Irish wind
Is the song that soothes my heart.

Wind! What do you say as you go by
To the leaves that tremble so?
And what, O Trees! Is your reply
To the autumn winds that blow?
Oh, sad and solemn, yet sweet and kind
You come and you depart;
But the song you sing, O Autumn Wind!
Is the song that soothes my heart.

I love the song of the men who march
To fight for faith and home,
And the chime of bells that sink and swell
Round yon cathedral’s dome;
I listen to many a pleasant song
In city and crowded mart,
But the autumn breeze through Irish trees
Makes songs that soothe my heart.

–

MICHAEL MULLIN

‘THE BARD OF FOREMASS’
FOREMASS LOWER, SIXMILECROSS, CO. TYRONE