With the clay of the walls coming through with its stain,

Like the blackbird’s left nest in the briar!

Does a child there give heed to the song of the lark,

As it lifts and it drops till the fall of the dark,

When the heavy-foot kine trudge home from the paurk,

Or do none but the red-shank now listen?

The sloe-bush, I know, grows close to the well,

And its long-lasting blossoms are there, I can tell,

When the kid that was yeaned when the first ones befell

Can jump to the ditch that they grow on!