The Irish Piper In Irish Life

will take my pipes and go now, for the bees upon the hill
Are singing of the summer that is coming from the stars.
I will take my pipes and go now, for the little mountain rill
Is pleading with the bagpipes in tender, crooning bars.

I will go o’er the hills and valleys, and through fields of ripening rye.
And the linnet and the throstle and the bittern in the sedge
Will hush their throats and listen while the piper passes by,
On the great long road of silver that ends at the world’s edge.

I will take my pipes and go now, for the sandflower on the dunes
Is a-weary of the sobbing of the big white sea,
And is asking for the piper, with his basket full of tunes,
To play the merry lilting that sets all hearts free.

I will take my pipes and go now, and God go with you all,
And keep all sorrow from you, and the dark heart ‘s load.
I will take my pipes and go now, for I hear the summer call,
And you ‘ll hear the pipes a-singing as I pass along the road.

– Donn Byrne.