Traditional Irish, On Raglan Road | Ars Nova Copenhagen
Recorded live at Ansgars Kirke, Odense, Denmark, November 20th 2017. Ars Nova Copenhagen conducted by Paul Hillier. Arr. Paul Hillier.
On Raglan Road is a well-known Irish song from a poem written by Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh named after Raglan Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The poem was put to music when the poet met Luke Kelly of the Irish band The Dubliners. It was set to the music of the traditional song The Dawning of the Day (Fáinne Geal an Lae).
Soloist: Laura Lamph
Additional Ars Nova singers: Ann Christin Wesser Ingels, Hanna Kappelin, Nina Bols Lundgren, Elenor Wiman, Hanne-Marie le Fevre, Paul Bentley-Angell, Chris Fitzgerald-Lombard, Jakob Skjoldborg, Asger Lynge Petersen, Jakob Soelberg, Thomas Kiørbye
On Raglan Road on an Autumn Day,
I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare
That I may one day rue.
I saw the danger, yet I walked
Along the enchanted way
And I said let grief be a falling leaf
At the dawning of the day.
On Grafton Street in November,
We tripped lightly along the ledge
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
The worst of passions pledged.
The Queen of Hearts still baking tarts
And I not making hay,
Well I loved too much; by such and such
Is happiness thrown away.
I gave her the gifts of the mind.
I gave her the secret sign
That's known to all the artists who have
Known true Gods of Sound and Time.
With word and tint I did not stint.
I gave her reams of poems to say
With her own dark hair and her own name there
Like the clouds over fields of May.
On a quiet street where old ghosts meet,
I see her walking now away from me,
So hurriedly. My reason must allow,
For I have wooed, not as I should
A creature made of clay.
When the angel woos the clay, he'll lose
His wings at the dawn of the day.