| J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921. | | | | The Grand Match | | By Moira O’Neill (1864–1955) |
| | | DENNIS was hearty when Dennis was young, | |
| High was his step in the jig that he sprung, | |
| He had the looks an’ the sootherin’ tongue— | |
| An’ he wanted a girl wid a fortune. | |
| |
| Nannie was grey-eyed an’ Nannie was tall, | 5 |
| Fair was the face hid inunder her shawl, | |
| Troth! an’ he liked her the best o’ them all— | |
| But she’d not a traneen to her fortune. | |
| |
| He be to look out for a likelier match, | |
| So he married a girl that was counted a catch, | 10 |
| An’ as ugly as need be, the dark little patch— | |
| But that was a trifle, he told her. | |
| |
| She brought him her good-lookin’ gold to admire, | |
| She brought him her good-lookin’ cows to his byre, | |
| But far from good-lookin’ she sat by his fire— | 15 |
| An’ paid him that ‘thrifle’ he tould her. | |
| |
| He met pretty Nan when a month had gone by, | |
| An’ he thought, like a fool, to get round her he’d try; | |
| Wid a smile on her lip an’ a spark in her eye, | |
| She said, ‘How is the woman that owns ye?’ | 20 |
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| Och, never be tellin’ the life that he ’s led! | |
| Sure, many ’s the night that he’ll wish himself dead, | |
| For the sake of two eyes in a pretty girl’s head,— | |
| An’ the tongue of the woman that owns him. | | | | |
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