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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Thomas Osborne Davis (1814–1845)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

O, the Marriage!

Thomas Osborne Davis (1814–1845)

O, THE MARRIAGE, the marriage!

With love and mo bhuachaill for me,

The ladies that ride in a carriage

Might envy my marriage to me:

For Eoghan is straight as a tower,

And tender and loving and true;

He told me more love in an hour

Than the Squires of the county could do.
Then O, the marriage

His hair is a shower of soft gold,

His eye is as clear as the day,

His conscience and vote were unsold

When others were carried away:

His word is as good as an oath,

And freely ’twas given to me;

O, sure ’twill be happy for both

The day of our marriage to see!
Then O, the marriage

His kinsmen are honest and kind,

The neighbours think much of his skill;

And Eoghan ’s the lad to my mind,

Tho’ he owns neither castle nor mill.

But he has a tilloch of land,

A horse, and a stocking of coin,

A foot for the dance, and a hand

In the cause of his country to join.
Then O, the marriage

We meet in the market and fair—

We meet in the morning and night—

He sits on the half of my chair,

And my people are wild with delight.

Yet I long thro’ the winter to skim

(Tho’ Eoghan longs more, I can see),

When I will be married to him,

And he will be married to me!

Then O, the marriage, the marriage!

With love and mo bhuachaill for me,

The ladies that ride in their carriage

Might envy my marriage to me.