DANNY
by: John Millington Synge
(1871-1909)
- NE night a score of Erris men,
A score I'm told and nine,
Said, "We'll get shut of Danny's noise
Of girls and widows dyin'.
-
- "There's not his like from Binghamstown
To Boyle and Ballycroy,
At playing hell on decent girls,
At beating man and boy.
-
- "He's left two pairs of female twins
Beyond in Killacreest,
And twice in Crossmolina fair
He's struck the parish priest.
-
- "But we'll come round him in the night
A mile beyond the Mullet;
Ten will quench his bloody eyes,
And ten will choke his gullet."
-
- It wasn't long till Danny came,
From Bangor making way,
And he was damning moon and stars
And whistling grand and gay.
-
- Till in a gap of hazel glen--
And not a hare in sight--
Out lepped the nine-and-twenty lads
Along his left and right.
-
- Then Danny smashed the nose of Byrne,
He split the lips on three,
And bit across the right hand thumb
Of one Red Shawn Magee.
-
- But seven tripped him up behind,
And seven kicked before,
And seven squeezed around his throat
Till Danny kicked no more.
-
- Then some destroyed him with their heels,
Some tramped him in the mud,
Some stole his purse and timber pipe,
And some washed off his blood.
-
- . . . .
-
- And when you're walking out the way
From Bangor to Belmullet,
You'll see a flat cross on a stone
Where men choked Danny's gullet.
MORE POEMS BY JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE |
|