ALL SOUL'S EVE

by Dora Sigerson

I cried all night to you,
      I called till day was here;

Perhaps you could not come,
      Or were too tired, dear.
 

Your chair I set by mine,
      I made the dim hearth glow,

I whispered, "When he comes
      I shall not let him go."
 

I closed the shutters tight,
      I feared the dawn of day,

I stopped the busy clock
      That timed your hours away.
 

Loud howled my neighbour's dog,
      O glad was I to hear.

The dead are going by,
      Now you will come, my dear,
 

To take the chair by mine--
      Until the cock would crow--

O, if it be you came
      And could not let me know,
 

For once a shadow passed
      Behind me in the room,

I thought your loving eyes
      Would meet mine in the gloom.
 

And once I thought I heard
      A footstep by my chair,

I raised my eager hands,
      But no sweet ghost was there.
 

We were too wide apart--
      You in your spirit land--

I knew not when you came,
      I could not understand.
 

Your eyes perhaps met mine,
      Reproached me through the gloom,

Alas, for me alone
      The empty, empty room!
 

The dead were passing home,
      The cock crew loud and clear,

Mavourneen, if you came,
      I knew not you were here.

ALL-SOULS' NIGHT

by Dora Sigerson

O mother, mother, I swept the hearth, I set his chair
    and the white board spread,
I prayed for his coming to our kind Lady when Death's
    doors would let out the dead;
A strange wind rattled the window-pane, and down the
    lane a dog howled on,
I called his name and the candle flame burnt dim, pressed
    a hand the door-latch upon.
Deelish! Deelish! my woe forever that I could not sever
    coward flesh from fear.
I called his name and the pale ghost came; but I was
    afraid to meet my dear.

O mother, mother, in tears I checked the sad hours past
    of the year that's o'er,
Till by God's grace I might see his face and hear the
    sound of his voice once more;
The chair I set from the cold and wet, he took when he
    came from unknown skies
Of the land of the dead, on my bent brown head I felt
    the reproach of his saddened eyes;
I closed my lids on my heart's desire, crouched by the fire,
    my voice was dumb.
At my clean-swept hearth he had no mirth, and at my
    table he broke no crumb.
Deelish! Deelish! my woe forever that I could not sever
    coward flesh from fear.
His chair put aside when the young cock cried, and I
    was afraid to meet my dear.

THE BANSHEE

by Dora Sigerson

God be between us and all harm,  
For I to-night have seen  
A banshee in the shadow pass  
Along the dark boreen.

And as she went she keened and cried,  
And combed her long white hair,  
She stopped at Molly Reilly's door,  
And sobbed till midnight there.

And is it for himself she moans,  
Who is so far away?  
Or is it Molly Reilly's death  
She cries until the day?

Now Molly thinks her man has gone  
A sailor lad to be;  
She puts a candle at her door  
Each night for him to see.

But he is off to Galway town,  
(And who dare tell her this?)  
Enchanted by a woman's eyes,  
Half-maddened by her kiss.

So as we go by Molly's door  
We look towards the sea,  
And say, "May God bring home your lad  
Wherever he may be."

I pray it may be Molly's self  
The banshee keens and cries,  
For who dare breathe the tale to her,  
Be it her man who dies?

But there is sorrow on the way,  
For I tonight have seen  
A banshee in the shadow pass  
Along the dark boreen.