Love

Can Doov Deelish

by Dora Sigerson Shorter 1866–1918

From A Book of Irish Verse, ed. W. B. Yeats (1900)

Love

Can doov deelish, beside the sea
I stand and stretch my hands to thee
Across the world.
The riderless horses race to shore
With thundering hoofs and shuddering, hoar,
Blown manes uncurled.

Can doov deelish, I cry to thee
Beyond the world, beneath the sea,
Thou being dead.
Where hast thou hidden from the beat
Of crushing hoofs and tearing feet
Thy dear black head?

God bless the woman, whoever she be,
From the tossing waves will recover thee
And lashing wind.
Who will take thee out of the wind and storm,
Dry thy wet face on her bosom warm
And lips so kind?

I not to know. It is hard to pray,
But I shall for this woman from day to day,
'Comfort my dead,
The sport of the winds and the play of the sea.'
I loved thee too well for this thing to be,
O dear black head!

MLA

Shorter, Dora Sigerson. “Can Doov Deelish.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/sigerson_d/0/.

Chicago

Shorter, Dora Sigerson. “Can Doov Deelish.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/sigerson_d/0/.

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