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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SONG OF THE DRAINER (ON TOWARD MOUNTAIN), by PATRICK MACGILL Poet's Biography
First Line: He is the drainer- / out on the moorland bleak and grey, using his
Last Line: Such is the drainer.
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Old Age; Solitude; Work; Workers; Loneliness
First Line: He is the drainer- / out on the moorland bleak and grey, using his
Last Line: Such is the drainer.
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Old Age; Solitude; Work; Workers; Loneliness
HE is the Drainer. —
Out on the moorland bleak and grey, using his spade in a primitive way,
through chilly evening and searing day. Call him a fool, and well you may —
He is the Drainer.
The toil of the Drainer. —
Only the simple work to do, to plod and delve the quagmire through, for
thirty pence, his daily screw. — The labour is healthy — but not for
you,
Just for the Drainer.
The artless Drainer. —
It does n't require a lot of skill to dig with a spade or hammer a drill,
but it's bad enough for a man when ill with fevery bones or a wintry chill
—
Even a Drainer.
The home of the Drainer. —
A couple of stakes shoved into the ground, a hole for a window, a roof tree
crowned with rushes and straw, and all around a waste where lichens and weeds
abound.
Is the home of the Drainer.
The rugged Drainer. —
The sleepy bog breezes chant their hymn, the rushes and lilies are soft and
slim, the deep dark pools the sun-beams limn — but what do these beauties
matter to him —
The rugged Drainer?
The poor old Drainer. —
Some day he'll pass away in a cramp, where the sundews gleam and the
bogbines ramp, and go like a ghost from the drag and the damp — the poor
old slave of the dismal swamp.
The hapless Drainer.
Such is the Drainer. —
Voiceless slave of the solitude, rude as the draining shovel is rude —
Man by the ages of wrong subdued, marred, misshapen, misunderstood —
Such is the Drainer.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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SILENCE LIKE COOL SAND by PAT MORA
THE HONEY BEAR by EILEEN MYLES