Love

Mary of Carrick

by Ethna Carbery 1866–1902

From The Four Winds of Eirinn (1902)

Love

Mary of Carrick has gone away
From our pleasant places, down to the sea,
She has put a loss on our mountain gray,
She has drained the joy from the heart o' me,
Mary a-stor,
Mary a-stor.
Black hair, black eyes, I am grieving sore!

Mary of Carrick is small and sweet —
My Share of the World, how sweet were you
Tripping along on little bare feet
With your milking-pails through the rainbow dew?
Mary a-stor,
Mary a-stor.
The sun was a shadow with you to the fore!

Mary of Carrick gave only a smile —
No word of comfort for words I spake,
But since she left me, this weary while,
My heart is learning the way to break,
Mary a-stor,
Mary a-stor,
Quick is my learning — and bitter the lore!

Mary of Carrick, 'tis you I must follow,
For where you are 'tis there I must be —
On mountain gray, or in heathery hollow,
Or where the salt wind blows from the sea.
Mary a-stor,
Mary a-stor.
When I find I shall bind you, nor lose evermore!

MLA

Carbery, Ethna. “Mary of Carrick.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/carbery/11/.

Chicago

Carbery, Ethna. “Mary of Carrick.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/carbery/11/.

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