A big thank you to all who responded to my suggestion for brightening our November evenings with images to illustrate a song,a poem or a proverb. My repertoire of songs, poems, proverbs and sayings has expanded considerably as a result and the images have been great fun to generate and to view.

This one is for Mairéad

Today,29th October, a chilly and sunny November Saturday I took my camera into Raglan Road, a leafy residential area in South Dublin. It has been made famous in the poem and song by Patrick Kavanagh written in 1946. The poem was originally published as 'Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away' and was written about his unrequited love for Hilda Moriarty. The poem has been recorded in song by many artists including Luke Kelly of the Dubliners, Van Morrison, Sinéad O'Connor, Mark Knopler and others.

Below is one of the late Luke Kelly's versions of Raglan Road



On Raglan Road


On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay -
O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like 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
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay -
When the angel woos the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.

Patrick Kavanagh