I Would Be A Stranger By Clara Today

Perhaps from the old place I've been too long away I would be a stranger by Clara today A stranger to most people there I would meet It has been twenty three years since I lived in Millstreet. Far north as the crow fly from this sunlit shore A stranger in Claraghatlea and Claramore I left when the weather was threatening to snow And in the fields near Millstreet Town Finnow bank high did flow. Of the Homeplace such pleasant memories I retain And in fancy I walk in the old fields again On a Spring evening the chaffinch is singing as the sun goes down In a grove by the stream a mile from Millstreet Town. A stranger in Inchaleigh, Shannaknock and Annagloor But with such happy memories I cannot be poor The Cails from Kippagh through Ballydaly is babbling along And in a grove in Feirm a robin on song. In my flights of fancy such beauty I've seen The high fields of Clarabeg and the groves of Dereen And though lovely to visualize the hawthorns in their white blooms of May I would be a stranger by Clara today.