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'Pegasus' is a poem written by Patrick Kavanagh. Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist known for his description of Irish life through reference to the commonplace. 'Pegasus' tells the story of a man trying to sell his old horse, but no one is interested as the horse is too old.

My soul was an old horse Offered for sale in twenty fairs. I offered him to the Church–the buyers Were little men who feared his unusual airs. One said: ‘Let him remain unbid In the wind and rain and hunger Of sin and we will get him– With the winkers thrown in–for nothing.’

Then the men of State looked at What I’d brought for sale. One minister, wondering if Another horse-body would fit the tail That he’d kept for sentiment- The relic of his own soul– Said, ‘I will graze him in lieu of his labour.’ I lent him for a week or more And he came back a hurdle of bones, Starved, overworked, in despair. I nursed him on the roadside grass To shape him for another fair.

I lowered my price. I stood him where The broken-winded, spavined stand And crooked shopkeepers said that he Might do a season on the land– But not for high-paid work in towns. He’d do a tinker, possibly. I begged, ‘O make some offer now, A soul is a poor man’s tragedy. He’ll draw your dungiest cart,’ I said, ‘Show you short cuts to Mass, Teach weather lore, at night collect Bad debts from poor men’s grass.’ And they would not.

Where the tinkers quarrel I went down With my horse, my soul. I cried, ‘Who will bid me half a crown?’ From their rowdy bargaining Not one turned. ‘Soul,’ I prayed, ‘I have hawked you through the world Of Church and State and meanest trade. But this evening, halter off, Never again will it go on. On the south side of ditches There is grazing of the sun. No more haggling with the world….’

‘A place in thy memory’ is a poem written by Gerald Griffin and taken from ‘The Collegians’,  a novel based on a Protestant Anglo-Irish man who murdered Ellen Hanley, a young Catholic Irish girl.

A place in thy memory, Dearest! Is all that I claim: To pause and look back when thou hearest The sound of my name. Another may woo thee, nearer Another may win and wear; I care not though he be dearer, If I am remember’d there.

Remember me, not as a lover Whose hope was cross’d, Whose bosom can never recover The light it hath lost! As the young bride remembers the mother She loves, though she never may see, As a sister remembers a brother, O Dearest, remember me!

Could I be thy true lover, Dearest! Couldst thou smile on me, I would be the fondest and dearest That ever lov’d thee: 20 But a cloud on my pathway is glooming That never must burst upon thine; And heaven, that made thee all blooming, Ne’er made thee to wither on mine.