Skeealyn Vannin, Disk 3 Track 07ii: Speaker: Thomas (Tom) Dodd, Peel
https://www.youtube.com/embed/fBG2JKDDg5UDate(s): 1948
Creator(s): Irish Folklore Commission
Transcript: An extract from ‘Betsy Lee’ by T. E. Brown
Now the beauty of the thing when the childher plays is
The terrible wonderful length the days is.
Up you jumps, and out in the sun,
And you fancy the day will never be done;
And you’re chasin’ the bumbees huminin’ so cross
In the hot sweet air among the goss,
Or gath’rin’ blue-bells, or lookin’ for eggs,
Or a peltin’ the ducks with their yalla legs,
Or a climbin’ and nearly breakin’ your skulls,
Or a shoutin’ for divilment after the gulls,
That’s the way with the kids, you know,
And the years do come and the years do go,
And when you look back it’s all like a puff,
Happy and over and short enough.
From ‘Betsy Lee’ by T. E. Brown, description of the days of childhood
That was all, just baby play,
Knockin’ about the boats all day,
And sometimes a lot of us takin’ hands
And racin’ like mad things over the sands.
Ah ! it wouldn’ been bad for some of us
If we’d never gone furder, and never fared wuss;
If we’d never growd up, and never got big,
If we’d never took the brandy swig,
If we were skippin’ and scamp’rin’ and cap’rin’ still
On the sand that lies below the hill,
Crunchin’ its gray ribs with the beat
Of our little patterin’ naked feet
If we’d just kept childher upon the shore
For ever and ever and ever more!
Language: Manx
Collection: Sound Archive
Level: WHOLE
ID number: SA 0579/3/7ii