View source for The Wind That Shakes the Barley

{{Short description|Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce}}
{{About|the Irish ballad|the film|The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)|the album by Loreena McKennitt|The Wind That Shakes the Barley (album)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

"'''The Wind That Shakes the Barley'''" is an Irish ballad written by [[Robert Dwyer Joyce]] (1836–1883), a [[Limerick]]-born poet and professor of English literature. The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young [[County Wexford|Wexford]] rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|1798 rebellion]] in [[Ireland]].<ref>{{cite web
| title= R D Joyce at Ricorso
| url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/
| access-date=2009-06-11}}</ref> The references to [[barley]] in the song derive from the fact that the rebels frequently carried barley or oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "[[croppy]]-holes," unmarked [[mass graves]] into which rebel casualties were thrown. To many [[Irish nationalists]], these "croppy-holes" symbolised the regenerative nature of resistance to [[British rule in Ireland]]. Barley growing every spring was said by nationalist authors to symbolize continuous Irish resistance to British rule, particularly in nationalist literature and poetry written about the rebellion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Damrosch|first=David|title=The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Twentieth Century|editor=David Damrosch|publisher=Longman|year=1999|pages=2854|isbn=978-0-321-06767-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XChUQXSHz8C&q=barley+|access-date=2011-10-28}}</ref>

The song is no. 2994 in the [[Roud Folk Song Index]], having existed in different forms in the oral tradition since its composition. Traditional Irish singers including [[Sarah Makem]] have performed the song.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Roud Folksong Index S341196)|url=https://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S341196|access-date=2021-01-18|website=The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library|language=en-gb}}</ref> There are numerous small variations in different traditional versions, and many performers leave out the fourth stanza of Dwyer Joyce's original version. The song's title was borrowed for [[Ken Loach]]'s 2006 [[The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)|film of the same name]], which features the song in one scene.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/|title=The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)|author=danielmcfadden|date=23 March 2007|work=IMDb}}</ref> The song should not be confused with the [[Reel (dance)|reel]] of the same name.

==Lyrics==
The lyrics below are as those printed in the original 1861 version.
:I sat within a valley green,
:I sat there with my true love,
:My sad heart strove the two between,
:The old love and the new love, -
:The old for her, the new that made
:Me think of Ireland dearly,
:While soft the wind blew down the glade
:And shook the golden barley

:'Twas hard the woeful words to frame
:To break the ties that bound us
:'Twas harder still to bear the shame
:Of foreign chains around us
:And so I said, "The mountain glen
:I'll seek next morning early
:And join the brave [[Society of United Irishmen|United Men]]!"
:While soft winds shook the barley

:While sad I kissed away her tears,
:My fond arms 'round her flinging,
:The foeman's shot burst on our ears,
:From out the wildwood ringing, -
:A bullet pierced my true love's side,
:In life's young spring so early,
:And on my breast in blood she died
:While soft winds shook the barley!

:I bore her to the wildwood screen,
:And many a summer blossom
:I placed with branches thick and green
:Above her gore-stain'd bosom:-
:I wept and kissed her pale, pale cheek,
:Then rushed o'er vale and far lea,
:My vengeance on the foe to wreak,
:While soft winds shook the barley!

:But blood for blood without remorse,
:I've ta'en at [[Battle of Oulart Hill|Oulart Hollow]]
:And placed my true love's clay-cold corpse
:Where I full soon will follow;
:And 'round her grave I wander drear,
:Noon, night, and morning early,
:With breaking heart whene'er I hear
:The wind that shakes the barley!<ref>{{cite book |last1=Joyce |first1=Robert Dwyer |title=Ballads, Romances and Songs |date=1861 |publisher=James Duffy |location=Dublin |pages=244–246 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vD8CAAAAQAAJ |access-date=24 December 2023}}</ref>

==Cover versions==
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The song has been covered by many artists, including [[Declan Hunt]], [[Anne Byrne (Irish folk singer)|Anne Byrne]], [[Finvarra]], [[Loreena McKennitt]], [[The Dubliners]], [[Dolores Keane]], [[Dead Can Dance]] (sung by [[Lisa Gerrard]]), [[Altan (band)|Altan]], [[Solas (group)|Solas]], [[The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem]], [[Dick Gaughan]], [[Orthodox Celts]], [[Amanda Palmer]], [[Fire + Ice]], [[The Irish Rovers]] (as "The Wind That Shakes the Corn"), [[Sarah Jezebel Deva]], [[Martin Carthy]], [[Declan de Barra]], [[Belfast Food]], [[Poets of the Fall]], [[Glow (band)|Glow]], [[Yanisovsky]], and [[Lumiere (band)|Lumiere]].

==Other uses of the name==
* [[Seán Keating]] chose the title for a 1941 painting.<ref>{{Cite web|title=THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, 1941 by Seán Keating PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) PPRHA HRA HRSA (1889-1977) at Whyte's Auctions {{!}} Whyte's - Irish Art & Collectibles|url=http://www.whytes.ie/art/the-wind-that-shakes-the-barley-1941/124846/|access-date=2021-03-17|website=Whyte's}}</ref>
* A poem by the same name was published by [[Katharine Tynan]].
* This is also the name of a fast Irish [[Reel (dance)|reel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/116|title=The Wind That Shakes The Barley (reel) on The Session|author=Jeremy|work=thesession.org}}</ref>
* ''The Wind That Shakes the Barley'' is also a novel by [[James Barke]] about the Scots poet [[Robert Burns]]; it was published in 1946, the first of a quintet of novels on the subject.
* A [[The Wind That Shakes the Barley (album)|studio album from Loreena McKennitt]] published in 2010.
* A song of the same name appears on UK progressive rock band [[It Bites]]' comeback album ''The Tall Ships'', released in 2008.
* "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" is also the third song on the "Dead Can Dance" album ''[[Into the Labyrinth (Dead Can Dance album)|Into the Labyrinth]]'', where the poem is sung by Lisa Gerrard.
* "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" occurs in the refrain of the song "Harvest of the Moon" on the album "The Journey" by Steeleye Span.
* "Dear wind that shakes the barley free" begins the first and last verses of the song "Widow with Shawl (A Portrait)" on the 1967 album [[A Gift from a Flower to a Garden]] by [[Donovan]].

==Popular culture==
A short section of the song is heard being sung by Micheál Ó Súilleabháin's grandmother Peggy at his wake in the 2006 [[The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)|film of the same name]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/soundtrack|title=The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)|work=IMDb}}</ref>

==References==
<references/>

{{Irish poetry}}
{{Irish rebel songs}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wind That Shakes The Barley, The}}
[[Category:Ballads of the Irish Rebellion of 1798]]
[[Category:Irish songs]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish literature]]
[[Category:1861 songs]]
[[Category:1861 poems]]
[[Category:Irish poems]]
[[Category:Poems set in Ireland]]