Song Lyric of the Day (Patrick Kavanagh, on an Autumn Day on ‘Raglan Road’)

“On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew

That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;

I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,

And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.” —Irish poet and novelist Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967), “On Raglan Road,” recorded by The Dubliners for their LP Hometown! (1972)

I first came across this poem—or, more accurately, a history of it—back in August, in the Financial Times column, “The Life of a Song.” Patrick Kavanagh first wrote the lyrics, as part of a poem, "Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away,” in 1946, as he realized the impossibility of a relationship with a 22-year-old medical student he loved.

Some years later, in The Bailey pub in Dublin, he suggested to Luke Kelly that the lyrics might make a fine song. The Dubliners singer took him up on the idea, and you can hear the results at the tail end of this 1979 TV interview, excerpted in this YouTube clip.

Others who have sung this now-classic song include Van Morrison and The Chieftains (on their Irish Heartbeat CD), Sinead O’Connor, Mark Knopfler, Ed Sheeran, Joan Osborne, and that great
Irishman, Billy Joel.