{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Quote box |title=The Fiddler of Dooney |fontsize=100% |quote=<poem>When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, Folk dance like a wave of the sea; My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet, My brother in Mocharabuiee.
I passed my brother and cousin: They read in their books of prayer; I read in my book of songs I bought at the Sligo fair.
When we come at the end of time To Peter sitting in state, He will smile on three old spirits, But call me first through the gate;
For the good are always the merry, Save by an evil chance, And the merry love the fiddle, And the merry love to dance:
And when the folk there spy me, They will all come up to me, With 'Here is the fiddler of Dooney!' And dance like a wave of the sea. -W.B. Yeats </poem>}}
'''"The Fiddler of Dooney"''' is a poem by [[William Butler Yeats]] first published in 1892.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuQ3I1rPKa4C&q=fiddler|title=The Bookman|date=1 November 1892|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|access-date=1 November 2021|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Yeats, W.B.(1992). Yeats Collected Poems. Vintage Classics, pp. ix</ref>
The word "Dooney" refers to Dooney Rock, a small hill overlooking [[Lough Gill]] near [[Sligo]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dooney Rock |url=https://sligotourism.ie/listing/dooney-rock/ |access-date=2021-07-31 |website=Sligo Tourism |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Fiddler of Dooney |url=https://poetryarchive.org/poem/fiddler-dooney/ |access-date=2021-07-31 |website=Poetry Archive |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==Influences== The poem gives its name to a [[fiddle]] competition held annually in County Sligo, first held in 1975.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-02 |title=Sligo’s Fiddler of Dooney contest an ‘outstanding success’ |url=https://www.independent.ie/regionals/sligo/lifestyle/sligos-fiddler-of-dooney-contest-an-outstanding-success/a1694804124.html |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=Irish Independent |language=en}}</ref>
The poem is set to music by [[Angelo Branduardi]] (on ''Branduardi canta Yeats'', 1986).
==See also== *[[List of works by William Butler Yeats]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-b-yeats/poetry|name=The collected public domain poetry of Yeats as an eBook|noitalics=true}}
{{W. B. Yeats}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiddler of Dooney, The}} [[Category:1899 poems]] [[Category:Poetry by W. B. Yeats]]