William Butler Yeats

“ But fruit that is of precious stone,
Or apples of the sun and moon.
What were our praise to them: they eat
Quiet's wild heart, like daily meat,
Who when night thickens are afloat
On dappled skins in a glass boat
Far out under a windless sky,
While over them birds of Aengus fly,
And over the tiller and the prow
And waving white wings to and fro
Awaken wanderings of light air
To stir their coverlet and their hair. ”

“ And with glad voice Maeve answered him 'What King
Of the far wandering shadows has come to me?
As in the old days when they would come and go
About my threshold to counsel and to help.'
The parted lips replied 'I seek your help,
For I am Aengus and I am crossed in love.'
'How may a mortal whose life gutters out
Help them that wander with hand clasping hand
By rivers where nor rain nor hail has dimmed
Their haughty images, that cannot fade
Although their beauty's like a hollow dream' ”

“ No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind,
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.
I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round
Coupled with golden chains and sing as they fly,
A king and a queen are wandering there, and the sound
Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind
With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by ”

“ Because of a story I heard under the thin horn
Of the third moon, that hung between the night and the day,
To dream of women whose beauty was folded in dismay,
Even in an old story, is a burden not to be borne. ”

“ CONCOBAR.
Some witch is floating in the air above us.
CUCHULLAIN.
Yes, witchcraft, witchcraft and the power of witchcraft. (To the Young Man)
Why did you do it? was it Calatin's daughters?
Out, out I say, for now it's sword on sword.
YOUNG MAN.
But, but, I did not.
CUCHULLAIN.
⁠Out, I say, out, out!
Sword upon sword; (He goes towards the door at back followed by Young Man. He turns on the threshold and cries out, looking at the Young Man.)
That hair my hands were drowned in! (He goes out followed by Young Man. The other Kings begin to follow them out.) ”

“ Baile and Aillinn would be wed.
They found an old man running there,
He had ragged long grass-yellow hair;
He had knees that stuck out of his hose;
He had puddle water in his shoes;
He had half a cloak to keep him dry;
Although he had a squirrel's eye.
O wandering birds and rushy beds
You put such folly in our heads
With all this crying in the wind
No common love is to our mind,
And our poor Kate or Nan is less
Than any whose unhappiness
Awoke the harp strings long ago.
Yet they that know all things but know
That all life had to give us is
A child's laughter, a woman's kiss. ”

“ And fought with giants.
(They gather about the ale vat and begin to drink.)
CUCHULLAIN.
⁠Who was it that went out?
THIRD YOUNG KING.
As we came in?
CUCHULLAIN.
⁠Yes.
THIRD YOUNG KING.
⁠Barach and blind Fintain.
CUCHULLAIN.
They always flock together; the blind man
Has need of the fool's eyesight and strong body,
While the poor fool has need of the other's wit,
And night and day is up to his ears in mischief
That the blind man imagines. ”

“ And you are more high of heart than she
For all her wanderings over-sea;
But I'd have bird and rush forget
Those other two, for never yet
Has lover lived but longed to wive
Like them that are no more alive. ”

“ I said 'a line will take us hours maybe,
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.'
⁠That woman then ”

“ The notes they waken shall live on
When all this heavy history's done.
Our hands, our hands must ebb away.
Three Voices together
The proud and careless notes live on
But bless our hands that ebb away. ”

“ Some war or some rebellion would break out.
DAIRE.
Where's Maine Morgor and old Usnach's children,
And that high-headed even-walking queen,
And many near as great that got their death
Because you hated peace. ”

“ Lie there till the kings come. O, I will tell Concobar and Cuchullain and all the kings about you!
FINTAIN.
What would have happened to you but for me, and you without your wits. If I did not take care of you what would you do for food and warmth!
BARACH.
You take care of me? You stay safe and send me into every kind of danger. You sent me down the cliff for gull's eggs while you warmed your blind eyes in the sun. And then you ate all that were good for food. You left me the eggs that were neither egg nor bird. (The blindman tries to rise. Barach makes him lie down again.) ”

“ That they would come to blows,
They unhook their heavy swords
From golden and silver boughs;
But all that are killed in battle
Awaken to life again;
It is lucky that their story
Is not known among men. ”

“ FINTAIN.
Listen to him now! That's the sort of talk I have to put up with day out day in. (The fool is putting the feathers into his hair. Cuchullain takes a handful of feathers out of the heap and out of the fool's hair and begins to wipe the blood from his sword with them.)
BARACH.
He has taken my feathers to wipe his sword. It is blood that he is wiping from his sword! ”

“ I had a thought for no one's but your ears;
That you were beautiful and that I strove
To love you in the old high way of love;
That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown
As weary hearted as that hollow moon. ”

“ That empty the heart. I have forgot awhile
Tara uprooted, and new commonness
Upon the throne and crying about the streets
And hanging its paper flowers from post to post,
Because it is alone of all things happy. ”

“ The Maines' children dropped their spades, and stood
With quaking joints and terror strucken faces,
Till Maeve called out 'These are but common men.
The Maines' children have not dropped their spades
Because Earth crazy for its broken power
Casts up a show and the winds answer it
With holy shadows'. ”

“ I said, 'It's certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam's fall but needs much labouring.
There have been lovers who thought love should be
So much compounded of high courtesy
That they would sigh and quote with learned looks
Precedents out of beautiful old books;
Yet now it seems an idle trade enough'. ”

“ Who had been the lover of her middle life.
Suddenly Ailell spoke out of his sleep,
And not with his own voice or a man's voice,
But with the burning, live, unshaken voice
Of those that it may be can never age. ”

“ Being childless do not know it. Come nearer yet;
Though he is ringing that old silver rod
We'll have our own talk out. They cannot hear us.
(Concobar who is now seated in his great chair, opposite Cuchullain, beats upon the pillar of the house that is nearest to him with a rod of silver, till the Kings have become silent. Cuchullain alone continues to talk in a low voice to those about him, but not so loud as to disturb the silence. Concobar rises and speaks standing.) ”

“ There are a great many Queens there who can change themselves into wolves and into swine and into white hares, and when they are in their own shapes they are stronger than almost any man; and there are young men there who have cat's eyes and if a bird chirrup or a mouse squeak they cannot keep them shut even though it is bedtime and they sleepy; and listen, for this is a great wonder, a very great wonder, there is a long narrow bridge, and when anybody goes to cross it, that the Queens do not like, it flies up as this bench would if you were to sit on the end of it. ”

“ Baile that was of Rury's seed.
But the gods long ago decreed
No waiting maid should ever spread
Baile and Aillinn's marriage bed,
For they should clip and clip again
Where wild bees hive on the Great Plain. ”

“ I run to Baile Honey-Mouth
To tell him how the girl Aillinn
Rode from the country of her kin
And old and young men rode with her:
For all that country had been astir
If anybody half as fair
Had chosen a husband anywhere
But where it could see her every day.
When they had ridden a little way
An old man caught the horse's head
With 'You must home again and wed
With somebody in your own land'. ”

“ BARACH.
It is a fine fowl. It was the biggest in the yard.
FINTAIN.
It had a good smell, but I hope that the wild dogs have not smelt it. (Voices are heard outside the door at the side.) Here is our master. Let us stay and talk with him. Perhaps Cuchullain will give you a new cap with a feather. He told me that he would give you a new cap with a feather, a feather with an eye that looks at you, a peacock's feather.
BARACH.
No, no (he begins pulling Fintain towards the door.)
FINTAIN.
If you do not get it now, you may never get it, for the young man may kill him. ”

“ I gave him the feathers, because I thought he would like nothing so well.
(Barach is sitting on a bench playing with a heap of feathers which he has taken out of the breast of his coat.)
BARACH.
(singing) When you were an acorn on the tree top—
FINTAIN.
Where would he be but for me? I must be always thinking, thinking to get food for the two of us, and when we've got it, if the moon's at the full or the tide on the turn, he'll leave the rabbit in its snare till it is full of maggots, or let the trout slip through his hands back into the water. ”

“ Everybody who goes there to learn skill in arms has to cross it. It was in that country too that Cuchullain got his spear made out of dragon bones. There were two dragons fighting in the foam of the sea, & their grandam was the moon, and six Queens came along the shore.
BARACH.
I won't listen to your story.
FINTAIN.
It is a very wonderful story. Wait till you hear what the six Queens did. Their right hands were all made of silver.
BARACH.
No, I will have my dinner first. You have eaten the fowl I left in front of the fire. ”

“ FINTAIN.
(who is being led along very slowly and unwillingly) Yes I have a good head. The fowl should be done just right, but one never knows when a wild dog may come out of the woods. (They go out through the big door at the back. As they go out Cuchullain & certain young Kings come in at the side door. Cuchullain though still young is a good deal older than the others. They are all very gaily dressed, and have their hair fastened with balls of gold. The young men crowd about Cuchullain with wondering attention.) ”

“ He goes to the back of stage to welcome a company of Kings who come in through the great door. The other Kings gradually get into their places. Cuchullain sits in his great chair with certain of the young men standing around him. Others of the young men, however, remain with Daire at the ale vat. Daire holds out the horn of ale to one or two of the older Kings as they pass him going to their places. ”

“ I never re-wrote anything so many times; for at first I could not make these wills that stream into mere life poetical. But now I hope to do easily much more of the kind, and that our new Irish players will find the buskin and the sock. ”

“ Of Cathleen the daughter of Houlihan.
The wind has bundled up the clouds high over Knocknarea
And thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say.
Angers that are like noisy clouds have set our hearts abeat ”

“ Of a fierce woman.
(Concobar, a man much older than Cuchullain, has
come in through the great door at the back. He has
many kings about him. One of these kings, Daire,
a stout old man, is somewhat drunk.) ”