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A WISH

May seven tears in every week
Touch the hollow of your cheek,
That I–signed with such a dew–
For a lion’s share may sue
Of the roses ever curled
Round the May-pole of the world.

Heavy riddles lie in this,
Sorrow’s sauce for every kiss.

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IN MAY

In a nook
That opened south,
You and I
Lay mouth to mouth.

A snowy gull
And sooty daw
Came and looked
With many a caw;

“Such,” I said,
“Are I and you,
When you’ve kissed me
Black and blue!”

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EPITAPH

_After reading Ronsard’s lines from Rabelais_

If fruits are fed on any beast
Let vine-roots suck this parish priest,
For while he lived, no summer sun
Went up but he’d a bottle done,
And in the starlight beer and stout
Kept his waistcoat bulging out.

Then Death that changes happy things
Damned his soul to water springs.

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THE PASSING OF THE SHEE

_After looking at one of A. E.’s pictures_

Adieu, sweet Angus, Maeve, and Fand,
Ye plumed yet skinny Shee,
That poets played with hand in hand
To learn their ecstasy.

We’ll stretch in Red Dan Sally’s ditch,
And drink in Tubber fair,
Or poach with Red Dan Philly’s bitch
The badger and the hare.

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Author: John M. Synge
Original Publication: Dublin: Maunsel & Company, Ltd, 1909
Source: Project Gutenberg eBooks
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73189