'Tis long since, long since, since I heard <br />A tin-whistle played, <br />And heard the tunes, the ha'penny tunes <br />That nobody made! <br /> <br />The tunes that were before Cendfind <br />And Cir went Ireland's rounds <br />That were before the surety <br />That strings have given sounds! <br /> <br />And now is standing in the mist, <br />And jigging backward there, <br />Shrilling with fingers and with breath, <br />A tin-whistle player! <br /> <br />He has hare's eyes, a long face rimmed <br />Around with badger-grey; <br />Aimless, like cries of mountain birds <br />The tunes he has to play <br /> <br />The tunes that are for stretches bare, <br />And men whose lives are lone <br />And I had seen that face of his <br />Sculptured on cross of stone, <br />That long face, in a place of graves <br />With nettles overgrown.<br /><br />Padraic Colum<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-tin-whistle-player/
