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The Story of Raglan Road
Raglan Road is a famous Irish Love Song. It is a song of unrequited love made all the more captivating as we see that
the writer himself has known from the outset that he was going to get hurt.
The genius of this song is in how it captures so brilliantly the self-destructive recklessness that otherwise rational people
can display when they fall in love – no matter how old or mature they think they are. Poet, Patrick Kavanagh was 40 at
the time of the love affair in question and the girl, student Hilda Moriarty, was only 22. In an interview in 1987, Moriarty
reflected how the age gap was the main reason the relationship failed. Hilda was a Kerry woman and is said to have come
from the village of Baile an Lochaigh, a magical place nestled in the foothills of Mount Brandon, west of Dingle.
Famous musician and singer, Luke Kelly put Kavanagh’s words to music to create this well loved song.
On Raglan Road on an autumn day That’s known to the artists
I saw her first and knew who have known
That her dark hair
would weave a snare The true gods of sound and stone
That I might one day rue And word and tint did not stint
I saw the danger and I passed I gave her poems to say
Along the enchanted way With her own name there
And I said: ‘Let grief, be a fallen leaf and her own dark hair
At the dawning of the day’ Like clouds over fields of May
On Grafton Street in November On a quiet street where old ghosts meet
We tripped lightly along the ledge I see her walking now
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
Away from me so hurriedly
The worth of passion’s pledge My reason must allow
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts That had I loved not as I should
And I not making hay A creature made of clay
Oh I loved too much and by such When the angel woos the clay
is happiness thrown away He’d lose his wings at the dawn of day
I gave her gifts of the mind Song text taken from stlyrics.com
I gave her the secret signs
229
Raglan Road is a famous Irish Love Song. It is a song of unrequited love made all the more captivating as we see that
the writer himself has known from the outset that he was going to get hurt.
The genius of this song is in how it captures so brilliantly the self-destructive recklessness that otherwise rational people
can display when they fall in love – no matter how old or mature they think they are. Poet, Patrick Kavanagh was 40 at
the time of the love affair in question and the girl, student Hilda Moriarty, was only 22. In an interview in 1987, Moriarty
reflected how the age gap was the main reason the relationship failed. Hilda was a Kerry woman and is said to have come
from the village of Baile an Lochaigh, a magical place nestled in the foothills of Mount Brandon, west of Dingle.
Famous musician and singer, Luke Kelly put Kavanagh’s words to music to create this well loved song.
On Raglan Road on an autumn day That’s known to the artists
I saw her first and knew who have known
That her dark hair
would weave a snare The true gods of sound and stone
That I might one day rue And word and tint did not stint
I saw the danger and I passed I gave her poems to say
Along the enchanted way With her own name there
And I said: ‘Let grief, be a fallen leaf and her own dark hair
At the dawning of the day’ Like clouds over fields of May
On Grafton Street in November On a quiet street where old ghosts meet
We tripped lightly along the ledge I see her walking now
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
Away from me so hurriedly
The worth of passion’s pledge My reason must allow
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts That had I loved not as I should
And I not making hay A creature made of clay
Oh I loved too much and by such When the angel woos the clay
is happiness thrown away He’d lose his wings at the dawn of day
I gave her gifts of the mind Song text taken from stlyrics.com
I gave her the secret signs
229
