| I AM Raferty the Poet | |
| Full of hope and love, | |
| With eyes that have no light, | |
| With gentleness that has no misery. | |
| Going west upon my pilgrimage | 5 |
| By the light of my heart, | |
| Feeble and tired | |
| To the end of my road. | |
| Behold me now, | |
| And my face to the wall, | 10 |
| A-playing music | |
| Unto empty pockets. |
| Raferty, a Connacht peasant poet, while at some festivity, heard someone asking who he was. He was then blind and a fiddler. Turning around he made this perfect utterance. Raftery died in 1835. His poems have been collected, edited and translated by Dr. Douglas Hyde. |
Douglas Hyde (Dubhghlas de hÍde) known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn ("The Pleasant Little Branch"), was an Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945. He founded the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time.
