The beauty of the world hath made me sad,
This beauty that will pass;
Sometimes my heart hath shaken with great joy
To see a leaping squirrel in a tree,
Or a red lady-bird upon a stalk,
Or little rabbits in a field at evening,
Lit by a slanting sun,
Or some green hill where shadows drifted by
Some quiet hill where mountainy man hath sown
And soon would reap; near to the gate of Heaven;
Or children with bare feet upon the sands
Of some ebbed sea, or playing on the streets
Of little towns in Connacht,
Things young and happy.
And then my heart hath told me:
These will pass,
Will pass and change, will die and be no more,
Things bright and green, things young and happy;
And I have gone upon my way
Sorrowful.
One of my favourite poems. When I learned it at school it made me cry and I'm now eighty one and when I read it today I cried.
Margo, I also learned it in Scoil Mhuire in Dublin. It made me cry back then, and tears flow again today while reading it, as I begin my 85th year on earth.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I recall learning this beautiful poem as I could identify with the happening he wrote about as I lived in the countryside and as the years passed and my youth with them, my eyes fill with tears as I often reflect upon those beautiful memories my eyes have seen,
My sentiments exactly, Mattie.