The Boatman Of Kinsale
By Thomas Osborne Davis
His kiss is sweet, his word is kind,
His love is rich to me;
I could not in a palace find
A truer heart than he.
The eagle shelters not his nest
From hurricane and hail
More bravely than he guards my breast
The Boatman of Kinsale.
The wind that round the Fastnet sweeps
Is not a whit more pure,
The goat that down Cnoc Sheehy leaps
Has not a foot more sure.
No firmer hand nor freer eye
Eer faced an autumn gale,
De Courcys heart is not so high
The Boatman of Kinsale.
The brawling squires may heed him not,
The dainty stranger sneer,
But who will dare to hurt our cot
When Myles OHea is here?
The scarlet soldiers pass along:
Theyd like, but fear to rail:
His blood is hot, his blow is strong
The Boatman of Kinsale.
His hookers in the Scilly van,
When seines are in the foam,
But money never made the man,
Nor wealth a happy home,
So, blessd with love and liberty,
While he can trim a sail,
He ll trust in God, and cling to me
The Boatman of Kinsale.