Patrick Augustine Sheehan
Whole text
- p.482
- I saw a speck on my window pane
Last night 'gainst the leaden sky;
My windows were swept by bullets of rain,
As the storm went sullenly by. - Was it a fly on the window-pane?
Was it a bird in the sky,
Straining wet wings 'gainst the pitiless rain,
As the storm rushed sweltering by? - It was a fly on my window-pane,
Happy, and warm, and dry;
Counting the silvery drops of rain,
As they hissed from the angry sky. - It was a bird on the stormy blast,
Plunged in despair to try
Could he reach a refuge, till death had passed
On the hurricane thundering by. - And I said; Alas! for my little bird!
And I said: O happy fly!
Sheltered and safe from perils unheard,
And the moods of a winter sky. - Then sudden, a spider leaped from his nest,
And wrapped the enchanted fly
In fold and fold to his pitiless breast,
Without struggle, or plaint, or cry. - And the storm went wailing around the world,
And here on a branch close by,
My bird sat chirping, with pinions furled,
And the clouds soared clear and high. p.483 - And I said: O my soul! were it better for thee
Here in thy haven to lie,
Than out in the stress of the stormy lea,
Battling for victory? - There is peril at home; there is dread abroad;
And a bolt from the bluest sky:
Now, take thy chance, and trust in thy God;
He is wiser and stronger than I.
The Bird and the Fly.
P.A. SHEEHAN
Document details
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Title statement
Title (uniform): The Bird and the Fly
Author: Patrick Augustine Sheehan
Responsibility statement
Electronic edition compiled by: Benjamin Hazard
Funded by: School of History, University College, Cork and Private donation
Edition statement
1. First draft
Extent: 760 words
Publication statement
Publisher: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork
Address: College Road, Cork, Ireland — http://www.ucc.ie/celt
Date: 2014
Distributor: CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
CELT document ID: E900012-003
Availability: Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.
Source description
Manuscript
- [Details to follow].
Canon Sheehan on the Internet
- http://www.canonsheehanremembered.com.
Edition
- Canon P.A. Sheehan, 'The Bird and the Fly,' The Irish Monthly, 28/326 (August 1900) 482–483.
Literature
- Herman Joseph Heuser, Canon Sheehan of Doneraile: the story of an Irish parish priest as told chiefly by himself in books, personal memoirs, and letters (New York 1917).
- Arthur Coussens. P. A. Sheehan, zijn leven en zijn werken (Brugge/Bruges 1923).
- Michael P. Linehan, Canon Sheehan of Doneraile: Priest, Novelist, Man of Letters (Dublin 1952).
- James O'Brien (ed.), The Collected Letters of Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, 1883–1913 (Wells 2013).
- James O'Brien, Canon Sheehan of Doneraile 1852–1913: Outlines for a Literary Biography (Wells 2013). [Bibliographical references 205-11.]
The edition used in the digital edition
‘The Bird and the Fly’. In: The Irish Monthly: A Magazine of General Literature 28.326. Ed. by Matthew Russell SJ, pp. 482–483.
You can add this reference to your bibliographic database by copying or downloading the following:
@article{E900012-003,
editor = {},
title = {The Bird and the Fly},
journal = {The Irish Monthly: A Magazine of General Literature},
editor = {Matthew Russell SJ},
address = {Dublin},
publisher = {Irish Jesuit Province},
date = {August 1900},
volume = {28},
number = {326},
pages = {482–483}
}
Encoding description
Project description: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
Sampling declarations
The electronic text represents the edited version.
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Correction: Text has been checked and proof-read once.
Normalization: The electronic text represents the edited text.
Quotation: There are no quotations.
Hyphenation: Soft hyphens are silently removed. When a hyphenated word (hard or soft) crosses a page-break or line-break, the page-break and line-break are marked after the completion of the hyphenated word.
Segmentation: div0 = the poem. Metrical lines, line-breaks and stanzas are marked and numbered.
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Profile description
Creation: By Patrick Augustine Sheehan (1852–1913)
Date: 1900
Language usage
- The text is in English. (en)
Keywords: poetry; 20c; religious
Revision description
(Most recent first)
- 2014-01-15: File parsed. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2014-01-14: Header created; structural mark-up added; file proofed. (ed. Benjamin Hazard)
- 2014-01-10: Text captured. (data capture Benjamin Hazard)