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by James Stephens (1882 - 1950)

Mad Patsy said, he said to me
Language: English 
Mad Patsy said, he said to me,
That every morning he could see
An angel walking on the sky;
Across the sunny skies of morn
He threw great handfuls far and nigh
Of poppy seed among the corn;
And then, he said, the angels run
To see the poppies in the sun.

A poppy is a devil weed,
I said to him - he disagreed;
He said the devil had no hand
In spreading flowers tall and fair
Through corn and rye and meadow land,
by garth and barrow everywhere:
The devil has not any flower,
But only money in his power.

And then he stretched out in the sun
And rolled upon his back for fun:
He kicked his legs and roared for joy
Because the sun was shining down:
He said he was a little boy
And would not work for any clown:
He ran and laughed behind a bee,
And danced for very ecstasy.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by James Stephens (1882 - 1950), "In the poppy field", appears in Reincarnations, first published 1918 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Joyce McGowan Clark , "In the poppy field", published 1924 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Bryceson Treharne (1879 - 1948), "Mad Patsy", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Joan Trimble (1915 - 2005), "In the poppy field", 1949 [ baritone and 2 pianos ], from The County Mayo, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-01-16
Line count: 24
Word count: 156

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