Classic Poem

I'll go back again to my father's house and live on my father's land —
For my father's house is by Rosses' shore that slopes to Dooran strand,
And the wild mountains of Donegal rise up on either hand.

I have been gone from Donegal for seven years and a day,
And true enough it's a long, long while for a wanderer to stay —
But the hills of home are aye in my heart and never are far away.

The long white road winds o'er the hill from Fanad to Kilcar,
And winds apast Gweebara Bay where the deep sea-waters are —
Where the long grey boats go out by night to fish beyond the bar.

I'll lie by the beach the livelong day, where the foreshore dips to the sea —
When the sun is red on the golden gorse as once it used to be;
And, O! but it's many an olden thought will come up in the heart of me.

For the friends of my youth shall gather around, the friends that I knew of old.
The olden songs will be sung to me and the old, old stories told
Beside the fire of my father's house when the nights are long and cold.

'Tis there that I'll pass my years away, back in my native land;
In my father's house by Rosses' shore that lies by Dooran strand,
Where the hills of ancient Donegal rise up on either hand.