The Master

And he said and he said and he said,
    And I damned him in despair 
As I watched the red-haired girl
    Jest with men at the bar.

And he said while God gave him breath 
    “The crime of Cain is rife, 
And the younger generation
    Is doomed to sanguinary strife.”

And he said as he sipped his pint,
    “You should be, I surmise,
A votary of the muse,”
    And fixed me with his eyes.

And he said the scenery
    Took a Virgil’s pen to limn, 
And that the modest country maiden
    Seemed the best to him.

And he said she was like Venus,
    And she had eyes of blue ;
And I wondered what wild waters
    Would I liken the red girl to.

As she winked at me from the bar
    And nodded her bright sly head, 
That would lure the fox from the hill,
    The fish from the ocean’s bed. 
And he said, ”The loveliest maid
    That mortal ever viewed,
She lies in her cold and silent grave
    In the bloom of maidenhood."



Source: O'Connor, Frank; Three Old Brothers and Other Poems; 1936;
London; Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd.; p.15