On Raglan Road - Cover of an Irish song with traditional melody and words from a poem.

Raglan Road – from a poem by Patrick Kavanagh (1946), music from a traditional Irish song, “The Dawning of the Day”

On Raglan Road

On Raglan Road on an Autumn day,
I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare
That I may one day rue. I saw the danger, yet I walked
Along the enchanted way
And I said let grief be a falling leaf
At the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November,
We tripped lightly along the ledge
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
The worth of passions pledged.
The Queen of Hearts still baking tarts
And I not making hay,
Well I loved too much; by such and such
Is happiness thrown away.

I gave her the gifts of the mind.
I gave her the secret sign
That's known to all the artists who have
Known true Gods of Sound and Time.
With word and tint I never did stint.
I gave her reams of poems to say
With her own dark hair and her own name there
Like the clouds over fields of May.

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet,
I see her walking now. Away from me,
So hurriedly. My reason must allow,
For I have wooed, not as I should
A creature made of clay.
When an angel woos mere clay, he'll lose
His wings at the dawn of the day.