The Workman's Friend
When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
When money's tight and hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say you need a change,
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
In time of trouble and lousy strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.
Commentary
written under the psudonym “Brian O’Nolan”.
I heard this poem in Dublin some years back and it stuck with me in spirit if not in letter. Only recently have I come across a print copy in its entirety, which isn’t too surprising in that I was told it was written by Brendan Behan, which it isn’t. I thought you might enjoy it and consider it for use as a guest poem sometime.
It’s from a novel called “At Swim Two Birds”. Here’s another quote from the novel: “There’s one thing in that pome, permanence, if you know what I mean. That pome, I mean to say, is a pome that’ll be heard wherever the Irish race is wont to gather, it’ll live as long as there’s a hard root of an Irishman left by the Almighty on this planet, mark my words.”
Other works by Flann O’Brien include:
The Dalkey Archive
The Hard Life: An Exegesis of Squalor
The Third Policeman
An Béal Bocht (The Poor Mouth)
(I haven’t read them.)
More info about O’Brien and his works can be found at
http://www.hellshaw.com/flann/index.html
All the best,
Jeff Berndt.