Where the wandering water gushesFrom the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star …
– ‘The Stolen Child’ by W.B. Yeats
Though a story about the abduction of a child could hardly be
considered the best promotion for a beautiful natural wonder like Glencar waterfall,
you can get away with it when it’s a poem by the nation’s favourite writer, W.B.
Yeats. In fairness to Yeats, ‘The Stolen Child’ is a tale set to verse that is less
a bundled-into-the-back-of-a-van-using-a-packet-of-Smarties abduction but more the
return-to-innocence-by-running-away-with-the-fairies sort, i.e. the best type of
childhood abduction.
Thankfully, no one in the poem’s tale comes to harm and the poem
can be appreciated for its fond references to several wonderfully scenic locations
from Yeats’ childhood, such as Rosses Point and Sleuth Wood of Sligo and the impressive
15-metre cascade surrounded by verdant foliage that is Leitrim’s Glencar waterfall.
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