Sixteen Poems

In Short

This collection gathers sixteen lyric poems that map the landscapes, folk legends, and quiet heartbreaks of western Ireland. Moving from homesick farewells and unrequited country romances to eerie encounters with fairies, supernatural vanishings, and long-dead spirits, the book contrasts the fleeting length of a single human life against the enduring rhythm of nature. Its lasting power lies in its precise observation of coastal life, its gentle rhythmic musicality, and its unpretentious blend of earthly nostalgia with haunting local folklore.

The Story

The journey begins along the rugged Irish shoreline, where a speaker bids a sorrowful farewell to his childhood home of Belashanny. Wandering past the winding Erne river, salmon nets, and mountain walls, he resigns himself to exile across the sea while praying to return before his companions grow gray. This tender longing for place deepens into historical grief at the broken walls of Abbey Asaroe, where an impoverished old man stands among brambles, mourning the fallen line of ancestors who once ruled the surrounding territory.

Shadows darken as the realm of memory shifts into the supernatural. A sleeping speaker peers from his window in the moonlight to watch a procession of dead townsfolk, schoolmates, and his late mother march silently past. Out in the countryside, tiny enchanted folk dwell among the lake reeds and mountain tops, snatching away young girls like little Bridget to keep them sleeping beneath the water, or tricking unsuspecting travelers out of fairy gold with clever sneezes.

Human relationships fare no better against time and deception. A abandoned village girl sits at her spinning wheel weeping over an unfaithful lover who spends his coins on strangers, resigned to carrying her unborn child into a world of social shame and family reproach. At a lavish nobleman's feast, a disguised minstrel plays a harp to remind the bride of her broken vow; heartbroken, she begs to sleep one final night in her mother's arms, only to be found dead by morning. Other suitors face lighter rejections, like the young man who storms away from proud Kate o' Belashanny when she refuses his advances along the riverside.

Nature offers both cold comfort and unsettling reflections. A lover attempts to console his heavy heart in an April grove, only to be taunted by the sarcastic calls of chaffinches, blackbirds, and thrushes until a robin's broken strain finally brings relieving tears. Transient moments—like four ducks floating on a springtime pond or autumn leaves falling into rainy soil—leave memories that linger for decades. In the collection's closing arc, the supernatural merges with the sacred. Three mysterious maidens who spin in a room each night vanish forever when a pastor's son sets back the clock, leaving three stains of blood by the shore. Twilight voices beckon an old man toward the afterlife, while Abbot Cormac steps out to pray and listens to a white bird's song on a bush, only to return and discover that two hundred years have slipped away in what felt like a brief morning. Accepting his end under foreign rule, he dies peacefully, leaving the ruined chapel by the shore to melt silently back into the sea breezes, ash trees, and calm starlight.

How It Unfolds

The farewell to home A traveler bids adieu to the town of Belashanny, naming every local hill, fishing net, and friend he leaves behind as he prepares to cross the sea. He hopes to return when he is wealthy, even as he acknowledges that old faces will inevitably drop away.

The weight of ruins At Abbey Asaroe, a frail old man belonging to an ancient founding family stands weeping among nettles and windowless stone walls. His ancestral lineage of bards, spearmen, and abbots has faded into broken churchyard crosses.

The midnight march A narrator looks out his window at night and watches every dead person he ever knew parade through the moonlight. Among the drowned schoolmates and forgotten neighbors, his mother briefly lingers to gaze back at him.

The fairy's trick A traveler catches a tiny, bearded Lepracaun sewing a shoe in a foxglove ditch. Just as the traveler thinks he has secured the fairy's hidden pot of gold, the creature offers him a pinch of snuff and vanishes in a cloud of dust when he sneezes.

The village tragedy A pregnant young woman sits alone at her spinning wheel, mourning the loss of her innocence and her lover's infidelity. She dreads the judgment of her parents and neighbors, wishing she could sleep in the churchyard alongside her late sister.

The bride's demise During a grand wedding, a minstrel sings of a maiden's broken promise and returns a broken token of gold. The bride faints at the bridegroom's feet, asks to sleep that night at her mother's house, and dies before the next morning.

The bird's mocking song A forlorn lover wanders through a spring grove trying to find solace, but the local songbirds mock his grief with loud, mocking calls. Only a gentle robin's melody finally softens his anger and brings tears of relief.

The two-hundred-year song Abbot Cormac kneels to pray at dawn and becomes entranced by a snow-white bird singing on a holly bush. When he returns to his abbey, he finds strange faces speaking a foreign tongue and learns two centuries have passed while he listened.

The quiet return to earth A ruined chapel sits by the shore, untouched by human sound and surrounded only by salty breezes and grass. Over time, fresh funeral tears cease, ash tree suckers spread across the graves, and nature reclaims the site.

The People

• The Exile / Narrator: A nostalgic traveler leaving Belashanny. He wants to hold onto his youth and return home wealthy, but he is forced to face the heavy reality of parting from his closest friends.
• The Old Descendant: A gray, bowed man of the ancient lineage that founded Asaroe. He seeks a honorable resting place among his family's ruined stones rather than a workhouse grave.
• The Lepracaun: A tiny, bearded fairy cobbler who guards ninety-nine crocks of gold. He wants to ply his trade in peace and easily outsmarts greedy humans by flinging snuff into their faces.
• The Abandoned Maiden: A lonely village woman spinning thread in grief. She wants her lover's affection and relief from her heart's misery, but she ends up trapped in social disgrace and secret despair.
• The Minstrel Lover: A musician who arrives disguised at his former love's wedding feast. He wants to confront her betrayal, presenting the broken gold token that drives the bride to her death.
• The Nobleman's Bride: A sweet, pale young woman who betrayed her former lover for a noble marriage. overwhelmed by guilt during the feast, she seeks refuge in her mother's care and dies overnight.
• Kate o' Belashanny: A proud, tall woman admired by all the local men. She remains completely indifferent to her suitor's desperate romantic threats until he gives up complaining.
• Abbot Cormac: A devout monk whose heart is filled with prayer for his brethren and Ireland. Entranced by a white bird's heavenly song, he steps outside of time and peacefully surrenders his soul when he discovers two hundred years have vanished.

In Its Own Voice

"Adieu to Belashanny! where I was bred and born; Go where I may, I'll think of you, as sure as night and morn."

A traveler expresses his deep, enduring attachment to his Irish hometown as he prepares to cross the sea.

"A long, long crowd--where each seem'd lonely, Yet of them all there was one, one only, Raised a head or look'd my way"

A speaker watches a ghostly procession of dead acquaintances pass by his window at night, recognizing his late mother among the crowd.

"He went forth to pray, at the dawn of day; and when my prayers were said, I hearken'd awhile to a little bird, that sung above my head."

Abbot Cormac explains to a group of strange monks how a brief moment of listening to a bird led to his long absence.

What It's Really About

At its core, this collection explores the delicate boundary between the temporal human world and the timeless forces of nature and the supernatural. The poems repeatedly contrast the brief, fragile span of human life—marred by unrequited love, exile, heartbreak, and unexpected death—against the eternal permanence of coastal landscapes and old ruins. Whether through the mystical music of a white bird that erases two centuries or the silent growth of ash trees over forgotten graves, human joys and griefs are shown to be fleeting shadows. The collection argues that while memory and love tie people deeply to specific places, time eventually sweeps every individual into silence, leaving behind only nature's quiet cycle of wind, sea, and starlight.

Why Read It Today

This short collection offers a wonderfully atmospheric escape into nineteenth-century Irish folklore and coastal life. Reading it feels like sitting by a turf fire on a cold evening, listening to old songs of mystery and loss passed down through generations. Readers who enjoy delicate lyric poetry, folk ballads, and gentle melancholy will find plenty to treasure in these pages. The verse moves with a light, musical rhythm that makes even tragic stories of lost love and abandoned brides feel graceful and accessible.

The collection requires patience with its older poetic forms and occasional dialect words like seanachas, rath, or Sassenach, but these regional details give the settings their rich sense of place. Rather than overwhelming the reader with dense literary illusions, the difficulty lies only in its somber, reflective mood—it deals frequently with death, aging, and the quiet decay of human effort. Yet for those willing to lean into its quiet, sea-salted rhythms, the book provides a memorable, comforting look at how beauty, sorrow, and time intertwine.