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Ciaran Carson

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‘Come over here’, said Turnbull, ‘till you see the sorrow
            In the horse’s eyes.
Had you such heavy hooves as these for feet, there would
            Be sorrow in your eyes too.’

And it was clear to me, that he’d realised the sorrow
            In the horse’s eyes so well,
So deeply had he contemplated it, that he was steeped
            In the horse’s mind.

I looked at the horse, that I might see the sorrow
            Steadfast in its eyes,
And saw the eyes of Turnbull looking at me
            From the horse’s head.

I looked at Turnbull; I looked at him again,
            And saw in that face of his
The over-big eyes that were dumb with sorrow –
            The horse’s eyes.

© 1993, Ciaran Carson
From: First Language
Publisher: Gallery Press, Oldcastle; Wake Forest University Press, Winston-Salem, NC

Ciaran Carson

Ciaran Carson

(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1948)

Ciaran Carson was born and grew up in Belfast, where Irish was the first language of the family home; Carson learnt English playing on the streets. From an early age, he was ‘always aware of language, how it operates. How if you say it in one language it’s not the same as saying it in another’ (as stated in a Guardian interview). Carson’s poetry is interested in the profound interdependence of ...

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‘Come over here’, said Turnbull, ‘till you see the sorrow
            In the horse’s eyes.
Had you such heavy hooves as these for feet, there would
            Be sorrow in your eyes too.’

And it was clear to me, that he’d realised the sorrow
            In the horse’s eyes so well,
So deeply had he contemplated it, that he was steeped
            In the horse’s mind.

I looked at the horse, that I might see the sorrow
            Steadfast in its eyes,
And saw the eyes of Turnbull looking at me
            From the horse’s head.

I looked at Turnbull; I looked at him again,
            And saw in that face of his
The over-big eyes that were dumb with sorrow –
            The horse’s eyes.

From: First Language

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