Have You Been at Carrick? - Edward Walsh

Have you been at Carrick, and saw my true-love there?

And saw you her features, all beautiful, bright, and fair?

Saw you the most fragrant, flowering, sweet apple-tree?—

Oh! saw you my loved one, and pines she in grief like me?

I have been at Carrick, and saw thy own true-love there;

And saw, too, her features, all beautiful, bright and fair;

And saw the most fragrant, flowering, sweet apple-tree—

I saw thy loved one—she pines not in grief, like thee!

Five guineas would price every tress of her golden hair—

Then think what a treasure her pillow at night to share,

These tresses thick-clustering and curling around her brow—

Oh, Ringlet of Fairness! I’ll drink to thy beauty now!

When seeking to slumber, my bosom is rent with sighs—

I toss on my pillow till morning’s blest beams arise;

No aid, bright Beloved! can reach me save God above,

For a blood-lake is formed of the light of my eyes with love!

Until yellow Autumn shall usher the Paschal day,

And Patrick’s gay festival come in its train alway—

Although through my coffin the blossoming boughs shall grow,

My love on another I’ll never in life bestow!

Lo! yonder the maiden illustrious, queen-like, high,

With long-flowing tresses adown to her sandal-tie—

Swan, fair as the lily, descended of high degree,

A myriad of welcomes, dear maid of my heart, to thee!

---

Edward Walsh (1805 – 1850) Ireland

Source: Anthology of Irish verse, ed. with an introduction by Padraic Colum, Boni and Liveright, 1922.