Hello again, WS!

This is a fantastic piece of family history. I can't imagine how brave that lady was to travel across an ocean to an unknown country at age 14. I bet there's a lot more to this story.

Within the three stanzas, you do give an amazing insight into this lady's story — the alcoholic father and loving mother, and leaving behind her parents' debt ridden lifestyle.

If there's anything that might be changed, I'd capitalise States, since it's short for the US here, and consider replacing mead with stout or beer, simply because mead is not only a very rare drink and considered quite medieval in context, but it's also expensive when available. Many Irish people drink Guinness, which is a kind of 'stout' — dark beer, very popular in Ireland because it was cheaper than regular beer and stronger in alcohol content. Oh, and Irish people frequently use 'Da' rather than 'Pa'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stout

http://www.namenerds.com/irish/granny.html

It might be a nice idea to do an accompanying poem from the point of view of the US coastguard official in Ellis Island who would have been confronted by a 14 year old girl with no guardians at the immigration centre and faced the decision of whether to allow her into Manhatten or send her back on the next boat to Ireland. :)

Thank you for sharing this wonderful poem!

Best wishes,

Bob :D







My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!" .