William Butler Yeats

“ O heart, be at peace, because
Nor knave nor dolt can break
What's not for their applause,
Being for a woman's sake.
Enough if the work has seemed,
So did she your strength renew,
A dream that a lion had dreamed
Till the wilderness cried aloud,
A secret between you two,
Between the proud and the proud. ”

“ I had not given a penny for a song
Did not the poet sing it with such airs
That one believed he had a sword upstairs;
Yet would be now, could I but have my wish,
Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish. ”

“ UPON A HOUSE SHAKEN BY
THE LAND AGITATION
How should the world be luckier if this house,
Where passion and precision have been one
Time out of mind, became too ruinous
To breed the lidless eye that loves the sun? ”

“ Heart and delighted heart;
And one because her hand
Had strength that could unbind
What none can understand,
What none can have and thrive,
Youth's dreamy load, till she
So changed me that I live
Labouring in ecstasy. ”

“ Stroke into peace this cat that has come to take our lives.
Now it is purring again, and now I drink to your wives,
And I drink to Emer, my wife.
[A great noise without and shouting] Why, what in God's name is that noise?
Conall
What else but the charioteers and the kitchen and stable boys
Shouting against each other, and the worst of all is your own,
That chariot-driver, Laeg, and they'll keep it up till the dawn,
And there's not a man in the house that will close his eyes to-night,
Or be able to keep them from it, or know what set them to fight. ”

“ Conall
We stood as we're standing now.
Laegaire
⁠The horns were as empty.
Conall
⁠When
He ran up out of the sea with his head on his shoulders again.
Cuchulain
Why, this is a tale worth telling.
Conall
And he called for his debt and his right,
And said that the land was disgraced because of us two from that night
If we did not pay him his debt.
Laegaire
⁠What is there to be said
When a man with a right to get it has come to ask for your head? ”

“ That in the blinding light beyond the grave
We'll find so good a thing as that we have lost?
The hourly kindness, the day's common speech.
The habitual content of each with each
When neither soul nor body has been crossed. ”

“ Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment? ”

“ That if we hold that flight they'll leave the place,
While those same hundreds mock another day
Because we have made our art of common things,
So bitterly, you'd dream they longed to look
All their lives through into some drift of wings. ”

“ Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt
As though it dragged road metal. My curse on plays
That have to be set up in fifty ways,
On the day's war with every knave and dolt,
Theatre business, management of men. ”

“ The majesty that shuts his burning eye;
The weak lay hand on what the strong has done,
Till that be tumbled that was lifted high
And discord follow upon unison,
And all things at one common level lie. ”

“ Go home and praise your grand-dad. They took to the horns for spite,
For I said that no cock of your sort had been born since the fight began.
Another
Conall has got it, the best man has got it, and I am his man.
Cuchulain
Who was it started this quarrel?
A Stable Boy
⁠It was Laeg.
Another
⁠It was Laeg done it all.
Laeg
A high, wide, foxy man came where we sat in the hall,
Getting our supper ready, with a great voice like the wind,
And cried that there was a helmet, or something of the kind,
That was for the foremost man upon the ridge of the earth. ”

“ The butt end of a steering oar,
And everywhere that I could turn
Men ran upon the shore.
And though I would have hushed the crowd
There was no mother's son but said,
"What is the figure in a shroud
Upon a gaudy bed?" ”

“ Red Man
I demand the debt that's owing. Let some man kneel down there
That I may cut his head off, or all shall go to wrack.
Cuchulain
He played and paid with his head and it's right that we pay him back,
And give him more than he gave, for he comes in here as a guest:
So I will give him my head. ”

“ We'll learn that sleeping is not death,
Hearing the whole earth change its tune,
Its flesh being wild, and it again
Crying aloud as the race course is,
And we find hearteners among men
That ride upon horses. ”

“ A drinking joke and a gibe and a juggler's feat, that is all,
To make the time go quickly—for I am the drinker's friend,
The kindest of all Shape-Changers from here to the world's end,
The best of all tipsy companions. ”

“ And wear upon his own head, and choose for yourselves the best.
O! Laegaire and Conall are brave, but they were afraid of my jest.
Well, maybe I jest too grimly when the ale is in the cup.
There, I'm forgiven now—
[Then in a more solemn voice as he goes out] ⁠Let the bravest take it up.
[Conall takes up Helmet and gazes at it with delight]
Laegaire
[Singing, with a swaggering stride] ⁠Laegaire is best;
⁠Between water and hill,
⁠He fought in the west
⁠With cat heads, until
⁠At the break of day
⁠All fell by his sword,
⁠And he carried away
⁠Their hidden hoard. ”

“ Through the door one can see low rocks which make the ground outside higher than it is within, and beyond the rocks a misty moon-lit sea. Through the windows one can see nothing but the sea. There is a great chair at the opposite side to the door, and in front of it a table with cups and a flagon of ale. ”

“ Laegaire's Wife
Your own man made up that tale trembling alone by himself,
Drowning his terror.
Emer
[Forcing herself in front]
I am Emer, it is I go first through the door.
No one shall walk before me, or praise any man before
My man has been praised.
Cuchulain
[Spreading his arms across the door so as to close it] ⁠Come, put an end to their quarrelling:
One is as fair as the other, and each one the wife of a king.
Break down the painted boards between the sill and the floor
That they come in together, each one at her own door. ”

“ The Black Men all wear dark purple and have eared caps, and at the end their eyes should look green from the reflected light of the sea. The Red Man is altogether in red. He is very tall, and his height increased by horns on the Green Helmet. The effect is intentionally violent and startling.
Laegaire
What is that? I had thought that I saw, though but in the wink of an eye,
A cat-headed man out of Connaught go pacing and spitting by;
But that could not be.
Conall
⁠You have dreamed it—there's nothing out there. ”

“ A WOMAN HOMER SUNG
If any man drew near
When I was young,
I thought, "He holds her dear,"
And shook with hate and fear.
But oh, 't was bitter wrong
If he could pass her by
With an indifferent eye. ”

“ A light gradually comes into the house from the sea, on which the moon begins to show once more.
There is no light within the 'house, and the great beams of the walls are dark and full of shadows, and the persons of the play dark too against the light. The Red Man is seen standing in the the midst of the house. The black cat-headed Men crouch and stand about the door. ”

“ Laegaire's Wife
[Without]
⁠Mine is the better to look at.
Conall's Wife
[Without]
⁠But mine is better born.
Emer
[Without]
My man is the pithier man.
Cuchulain
⁠Old hurricane, well done well done!
You've set our wives to the game that they may egg us on;
We are to kill each other that you may sport with us.
Ah, now, they've begun to wrestle as to who'll be first at the house.
[The Women come to the door struggling]
Emer
No, I have the right of place for I married the better man. ”

“ And she makes light of us though our wives do all that they can.
She spreads her tail like a peacock and praises none but her man.
Conall
A man in a long green cloak that covers him up to the chin
Comes down through the rocks and hazels.
Laegaire
⁠Cry out that he cannot come in.
Conall
He must look for his dinner elsewhere, for no one alive shall stop
Where a shame must alight on us two before the dawn is up.
Laegaire
No man on the ridge of the world must ever know that but us two.
Conall
[Outside door]
Go away, go away, go away.
Young Man ”

“ They carry great horns, ladles and the like]
Laeg
I am Laeg, Cuchulain's driver, and my master's cock of the yard.
Another
Conall would scatter his feathers.
⁠ [Confused murmurs]
Laegaire
⁠ [To Cuchulain]
⁠No use, they won't hear a word.
Conall
They'll keep it up till the dawn.
Another
⁠ It is Laegaire that is the best,
For he fought with cats in Connaught while Conall took his rest
And drained his ale pot.
Another
⁠Laegaire—what does a man of his sort
Care for the like of us? He did it for his own sport. ”