A Dead Girl To Her Lover

Nora Hopper Chesson

Nora Hopper Chesson portrait

1871 to 1906

Poem Image
A Dead Girl To Her Lover - Track 1
4.5
2 ratings 1 users

Rate this track as a guest! Your rating will be saved anonymously and contribute to the public statistics. Create a username to save your ratings permanently and access your favorites.

Rate this track

I hear the hill-winds. I hear them calling
The long gray twilights and white morns through.
The tides are rising, the tides are falling,
And how will I answer or come to you?
For over my head the waves are brawling,
And I shall never come back to you!

Dark water's flowing my dark head over,
And where's the charm that shall bid it back?
Wild merrows sing, and strange fishes hover
Above my bed o' the pale sea-wrack,
And Achill sands have not kept for my lover
The fading print of my footsteps' track.

Under the sea all my nights are lonely,
Wanting a song that I used to hear.
I dream and I wake and I listen only
For the sound of your footfall kind and dear.
Avourneen deelish, your Moirin's lonely,
And is the day of our meeting near?

The hill-winds coming, the hill-winds going,
I send my voice on their wings to you,-
To you, mo bouchal, whose boat is blowing
Out where the green sea meets the blue.
Come down to me now, for there's no knowing
But the bed I lie in might yet hold two!

Comments

(2025-06-28 06:35)

I couldn't put into words my love for this poem and for all three ethereal tracks. When I first listened to them, I felt entranced. I thought they couldn't be performed any better than they already are - they're just perfect. The longing in the poem is also beautifully reflected in the melancholic voices of the songstresses who sang them with such depth of feeling. My heart finally found an outlet for its emotions in listening to these tracks, and I cried a little when I first heard them two months ago. This website is like a dream come true. Can I ask you for also playing in tune some of the poems of amelia opie(1769-1853).She also wrote beautifully on love with nature imagery. Her poems like "lines to Henry" etc.

0
1 reply
"Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about the poem and the tracks. I appreciate hea..."Richard

Want to join the discussion? Reopen or create a unique username to comment. No personal details required!

Poet portrait