To the Blacksmith with a Spade

Owen Roe O’Sullivan, having got a girl in trouble and joined the
British Army, is supposed to have won hisdischarge by a poem on
Rodney’s victory at sea. Socially he is more degraded than O’Rahilly,
the irresponsible as a century of wicked laws had fashioned him, but
his songs are as popular among Irish-speakers as those of Burns in
Scotland. The smith’s name is Fitzgerald; hence the reference to the
Gherardini and their supposed Greek ancestry.

Make me a handle as straight as the. mast of a ship,
  Seumas you clever man, witty and bountiful,
Sprung through the Geraldine lords from the kings of Greece
  And fix the treadle and send it back to me soon.

Because the spade is the only thing keeping me now—
  And you know that my thirst for knowledge was always
	deep.
I’ll shoulder my traps and make for Galway that night
  To a place where I’m sure of sixpence a day and my
	keep.

And whenever I’m feeling low at the end of day,
  And the ganger comes round and assures me I’m
	dodging it well,
I’ll drop a few words about Death’s adventurous way
  And the wars of the Greeks in Troy, and the kings that
	fell.

I’ll speak of Samson who had great strength and pride,
  And Alexander, the man who was first of men,
And Caesar who took the sway on the Roman side
  And maybe I’ll speak of the feats of Achilles then.

Explaining of course how it came to MacTrain to die,
  And Deirdre the beauty who put the whole world astray,
And he’ll listen and gawk, and not notice an hour go  by,
  And so my learning will lift me through the day.

They’ll give me my pay in a lump when the harvest’s done,
  I’ll tuck it away in a knot in my shirt to keep,
And back to the village, singing and mad for fun—
  And I promise I won’t spend sixpence until we meet.

For you’re a man like myself with an antique thirst,
  So need I say how we’ll give the story an end?
We’ll shout and rattle our cans the livelong night
  Till there isn’t as much as the price of a pint to spend.


          Owen O’Sullivan


Source: O'Connor, Frank (tr); Kings, Lords, & Commons: An Anthology
from the Irish; 1962; London; Macmillan & Co; pp.124-125