| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Musicmaker’s Child | | By Miriam Allen de Ford |
| | | A MAIDEN, waiting for a man to take her: | |
| Then, for the love of his blue eyes, | |
| She wandered after Weir the musicmaker. | |
| |
| I know the burden of the tide, | |
| I catch the cry and moan of every breaker, | 5 |
| I read the secrets of the sands— | |
| I, the child of Weir the musicmaker. | |
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| In the white hush before the storm, | |
| I hear a heavy calling from the ocean— | |
| The souls of men who drowned at sea, | 10 |
| Aweary of its restless, flowing motion. | |
| |
| “I am choked with sand,” | |
| Says Jan the fisher. | |
| “A pearl in each hand,” | |
| Says Jan the fisher. | 15 |
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| “One for the earth, | |
| My grave to be; | |
| One for the priest | |
| Will pray for me.” | |
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| And Michael of the Wild Rocks, his bright beard streaming, | 20 |
| “Give me Christian burial, and a stone above my head! | |
| For I’ve a wife,” says he, “and my babe is on her knee; | |
| And she has naught to weep on but a memory of the dead.” | |
| |
| Old Fergus lies sleeping, and calls in his sleep, | |
| His white hair all matted with weeds of the sea: | 25 |
| “I have Shawn and Colom who watch for me— | |
| Shall my two sons not call me from out the deep?” | |
| |
| And the soul of Peter Day, | |
| That young, young lad, | |
| Whose quick, warm heart | 30 |
| Was all the wealth he had, | |
| |
| “O dear Lord God,” he prays, | |
| “There on the shore | |
| Was a girl used to walk | |
| Who’ll never walk there more. | 35 |
| |
| “It’s in church and holy ground | |
| That Janet lies: | |
| For my grave next hers, | |
| I will give up Paradise.” | |
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| Lord God has heeded Peter Day; | 40 |
| He has thrown his body on the white sand stretches: | |
| And they have laid him by a grave | |
| That’s two years overgrown with docks and vetches. | |
| |
| “Is it not strange,” they say in Culm, | |
| “That he alone came in upon the breaker?” | 45 |
| I smile my wise smile to myself— | |
| I, the child of Weir the musicmaker. | | | | |
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