The Kilfenora Teaboy
eala_...@my-dejanews.com
I'm the Kilfenora teaboy
And I'm not so very young,
But though the land is going to pieces
I will not take up the gun;
I am happy making tea,
I make lots of it when I can,
And when I can't - I just make do;
And I do a small bit of sheepfarming on the side.
Oh but it's the small bit of furze between two towns
Is what makes the Kilfenora teaboy really run.
I have nine healthy daughters
And please God I will have more,
Sometimes my dear wife beats me
But on the whole she's a gentle soul;
When I'm not making her some tea
I sit out and watch them all
Ring-a-rosying in the street;
And I do a small bit of sheepfarming on the side.
Oh but it's the small bit of furze between two towns
Is what makes the Kilfenora teaboy really run.
Oh indeed my wife is handsome,
She has a fire lighting in each eye,
You can pluck laughter from her elbows
And from her knees pour money's tears;
I make all my tea for her, I'm her teaboy on the hill,
And I also thatch her roof;
And I do a small bit of sheepfarming on the side.
Oh but it's the small bit of furze between two towns
Is what makes the Kilfenora teaboy really run.
And I'm not only a famous teaboy,
I'm a famous caveman too;
I paint pictures by the hundred
But you can't sell walls;
Although the people praise my pictures
As well as my turf-perfumed blend
They rarely fling a fiver in my face;
Oh don't we do an awful lot of dying on the side?
But Oh it 's the small bit of furze between two towns
Is what makes the Kilfenora teaboy really run.
By PAUL DURCAN
Eala Liath
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
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PeteStuart
eala_...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> The Kilfenora Teaboy
> By PAUL DURCAN
What is "furze"? A good poem, but bewildering without knowing what this is.
--
Pete Stuart
http://personal.bhm.bellsouth.net/~taocelt
Here 's to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here 's to the widow of fifty;
Here 's to the flaunting, extravagant quean,
And here 's to the housewife that 's thrifty!
Let the toast pass;
Drink to the lass;
I 'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the glass.
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Neil McEwan
wrote:
>What is "furze"? A good poem, but bewildering without knowing what this is.
Rough weed, same thing as gorse. There's a line in "The Tempest"
where Gonzalo on the sinking ship says "Now would I give a thousand
furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground -- long heath, brown
furze, anything."
Neil
--
mce...@supercity.ns.ca