24/12/2024
THE 6.40p.m. FROM AMIENS STREET (Westland Row)
O, is it nineteen forty
Or a thousand years ago?
We are not going home by train
We’re riding through the snow.
Riding our horses warily,
Among the ancient trees,
Strange beasts are howling fearfully
Somewhere deep in Meath.
We saw beside the Boyne
A kern keeping guard,
But we waved our green silk banners
As we galloped across the ford.
We saw upon a hill
A Christian church in flames:
Some said it was a candlelight
But it might have been the Danes.
‘O listen to the chanting
Of the monks in Monasterboice’
An old man said, and pulled
His horse’s bridle tight.
There’s John de Courcy ahead of us-
What! It cannot be
Perhaps ‘tis Collier the Robber
Heading for Dunleer
Though our lamps are cold blue ghosts
We ride in triumph north
Cheering, laughing. . . What voice said to me
‘Change at Dundalk’
Some thought that we were in a train-
But my cloak was stiff with snow!
We were riding home to Christmas
A thousand years ago.
Patrick Kavanagh 1904 – 1967.