Máire Bhán Astór | An Irish Love Story that Crossed the Sea to America |...

Among Ireland’s most tender love lyrics stands “Máire Bhán Astór” — Fair-haired Marie, my love — a poem written by Thomas Davis, one of the leading voices of Ireland’s 19th-century cultural revival.
Davis, a founder of The Nation newspaper and a champion of Irish identity, often used verse and song to awaken pride and emotion in a country struggling for self-definition.

In Máire Bhán Astór, he moves away from politics and into the heart’s world — expressing the purity and pain of love that endures through distance and time.
The poem’s gentle rhythm and natural imagery make it feel like a folk ballad even before it’s sung, which is why it lends itself so beautifully to music.


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LYRICS


In a valley far away,

With my Máire Bhán Astór,

Short would be the summer-day,

Ever loving more and more.

Winter-days would all grow long,

With the light her heart would pour,

With her kisses and her song,

And her loving more go leor.

[Chorus]

Fond is Máire Bhán Astór,

Fair is Máire Bhán Astór,

Sweet as ripple on the shore,

Sings my Máire Bhán Astór,

[Verse 2]

Oh! her sire is very proud,

And her mother cold as stone;

But her brother bravely vow’d

She should be my bride alone.

For he knew I lov’d her well,

And he knew she lov’d me too;

So he sought their pride to quell,

But ’twas all in vain to sue.

[Chorus]

True is Máire Bhán Astór,

Tried is Máire Bhán Astór,

Had I wings I’d never soar

From my Máire Bhán Astór,

[Verse 3]

There are lands where manly toil

Surely reaps the crop it sows;

Glorious woods and teeming soil,

Where the broad Missouri flows.

Through the trees the smoke shall rise

From our hearth with more go leor,

There shall shine the happy eyes

Of my Máire Bhán Astór,

[Final Chorus x2]

Mild is Máire Bhán Astór,

Mine is Máire Bhán Astór,

Saints will watch about the door

Of my Máire Bhán Astór,

 

On Spotify here; https://open.spotify.com/album/1FiEVL9LsNwrcp2ka13DdJ?si=313d141e408e405f 

Location: Ireland

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