Poems

THE ROSE OF THE WORLD

 
Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?
For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,
Mournful that no new wonder may betide,
Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,
And Usna's children died.
 
 
We and the labouring world are passing by:
Amid men's souls, that waver and give place,
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,
Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.
 
 
Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:
Before you were, or any hearts to beat,
Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;
He made the world to be a grassy road
Before her wandering feet.
 

THE ROSE OF PEACE

 
If Michael, leader of God's host
When Heaven and Hell are met,
Looked down on you from Heaven's door-post
He would his deeds forget.
 
 
Brooding no more upon God's wars
In his Divine homestead,
He would go weave out of the stars
A chaplet for your head.
 
 
And all folk seeing him bow down,
And white stars tell your praise,
Would come at last to God's great town,
Led on by gentle ways;
 
 
And God would bid His warfare cease.
Saying all things were well;
And softly make a rosy peace,
A peace of Heaven with Hell.
 

THE ROSE OF BATTLE

 
Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
The tall thought-woven sails, that flap unfurled
Above the tide of hours, trouble the air,
And God's bell buoyed to be the water's care;
While hushed from fear, or loud with hope, a band
With blown, spray-dabbled hair gather at hand.
Turn if you may from battles never done,
I call, as they go by me one by one,
Danger no refuge holds; and war no peace,
For him who hears love sing and never cease,
Beside her clean-swept hearth, her quiet shade:
But gather all for whom no love hath made
A woven silence, or but came to cast
A song into the air, and singing past
To smile on the pale dawn; and gather you
Who have sought more than is in rain or dew
Or in the sun and moon, or on the earth,
Or sighs amid the wandering, starry mirth,
Or comes in laughter from the sea's sad lips
And wage God's battles in the long gray ships.
The sad, the lonely, the insatiable,To these
Old Night shall all her mystery tell;
God's bell has claimed them by the little cry
Of their sad hearts, that may not live nor die.
 
 
Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring
The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.
Beauty grown sad with its eternity
Made you of us, and of the dim gray sea.
Our long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait,
For God has bid them share an equal fate;
And when at last defeated in His wars,
They have gone down under the same white stars,
We shall no longer hear the little cry
Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die.
 

A FAERY SONG

Sung by the people of faery over Diarmuid and Grania, who lay in their bridal sleep under a Cromlech.

 
We who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told:
 
 
Give to these children, new from the world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above:
 
 
Give to these children, new from the world,
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
 
 
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told.
 

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

 
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
 
 
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
 
 
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
 

A CRADLE SONG

 
"Coth yani me von gilli beg,'
N heur ve thu more a creena."
 

 
The angels are stooping
Above your bed;
They weary of trooping
With the whimpering dead.
 
 
God's laughing in heaven
To see you so good;
The Shining Seven
Are gay with His mood.
 
 
I kiss you and kiss you,
My pigeon, my own;
Ah, how I shall miss you
When you have grown.
 

THE PITY OF LOVE

 
A pity beyond all telling
Is hid in the heart of love:
The folk who are buying and selling
The clouds on their journey above
The cold wet winds ever blowing
And the shadowy hazel grove
Where mouse-gray waters are flowing
Threaten the head that I love.
 

THE SORROW OF LOVE

 
The quarrel of the sparrows in the eaves,
The full round moon and the star-laden sky,
And the loud song of the ever-singing leaves,
Had hid away earth's old and weary cry.
 
 
And then you came with those red mournful lips,
And with you came the whole of the world's tears
And all the trouble of her labouring ships,
And all the trouble of her myriad years.
 
 
And now the sparrows warring in the eaves,
The curd-pale moon, the white stars in the sky,
And the loud chaunting of the unquiet leaves,
Are shaken with earth's old and weary cry.
 

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

 
When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
 
 
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty will love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.
 
 
And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
 

THE WHITE BIRDS

 
I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!
We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;
And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,
Has awaked in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.
 
 
A weariness comes from those dreamers, dew dabbled, the lily and rose;
Ah, dream not of them, my beloved, the flame of the meteor that goes,
Or the flame of the blue star that lingers hung low in the fall of the dew:
For I would we were changed to white birds on the wandering foam: I and you!
 
 
I am haunted by numberless islands, and many a Danaan shore,
Where Time would surely forget us, and Sorrow come near us no more;
Soon far from the rose and the lily, and fret of the flames would we be,
Were we only white birds, my beloved, buoyed out on the foam of the sea!
 

A DREAM OF DEATH

 
I dreamed that one had died in a strange place
Near no accustomed hand;
And they had nailed the boards above her face
The peasants of that land,
Wondering to lay her in that solitude,
And raised above her mound
A cross they had made out of two bits of wood,
And planted cypress round;
And left her to the indifferent stars above
Until I carved these words:
She was more beautiful than thy first love,But now lies under boards.
 

A DREAM OF A BLESSED SPIRIT

 
All the heavy days are over;
Leave the body's coloured pride
Underneath the grass and clover,
With the feet laid side by side.
 
 
One with her are mirth and duty,
Bear the gold embroidered dress,
For she needs not her sad beauty,
To the scented oaken press.
 
 
Hers the kiss of Mother Mary,
The long hair is on her face;
Still she goes with footsteps wary,
Full of earth's old timid grace.
 
 
With white feet of angels seven
Her white feet go glimmering
And above the deep of heaven,
Flame on flame and wing on wing.
 

WHO GOES WITH FERGUS?

 
Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood's woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fears no more.
 
 
And no more turn aside and brood
Upon Love's bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.
 

THE MAN WHO DREAMED OF FAERYLAND

 
He stood among a crowd at Drumahair;
His heart hung all upon a silken dress,
And he had known at last some tenderness,
Before earth made of him her sleepy care;
But when a man poured fish into a pile,
It seemed they raised their little silver heads,
And sang how day a Druid twilight sheds
Upon a dim, green, well-beloved isle,
Where people love beside star-laden seas;
How Time may never mar their faery vows
Under the woven roofs of quicken boughs:
The singing shook him out of his new ease.
 
 
He wandered by the sands of Lisadill;
His mind ran all on money cares and fears,
And he had known at last some prudent years
Before they heaped his grave under the hill;
But while he passed before a plashy place,
A lug-worm with its gray and muddy mouth
Sang how somewhere to north or west or south
There dwelt a gay, exulting, gentle race;
And how beneath those three times blessed skies
A Danaan fruitage makes a shower of moons,
And as it falls awakens leafy tunes:
And at that singing he was no more wise.
 
 
He mused beside the well of Scanavin,
He mused upon his mockers: without fail
His sudden vengeance were a country tale,
Now that deep earth has drunk his body in;
But one small knot-grass growing by the pool
Told where, ah, little, all-unneeded voice!
Old Silence bids a lonely folk rejoice,
And chaplet their calm brows with leafage cool,
And how, when fades the sea-strewn rose of day,
A gentle feeling wraps them like a fleece,
And all their trouble dies into its peace:
The tale drove his fine angry mood away.
 
 
He slept under the hill of Lugnagall;
And might have known at last unhaunted sleep
Under that cold and vapour-turbaned steep,
Now that old earth had taken man and all:
Were not the worms that spired about his bones
A-telling with their low and reedy cry,
Of how God leans His hands out of the sky,
To bless that isle with honey in His tones;
That none may feel the power of squall and wave
And no one any leaf-crowned dancer miss
Until He burn up Nature with a kiss:
The man has found no comfort in the grave.
 

THE DEDICATION TO A BOOK OF STORIES SELECTED FROM THE IRISH NOVELISTS

 
There was a green branch hung with many a bell
When her own people ruled in wave-worn Eire;
And from its murmuring greenness, calm of faery,
A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.
 
 
It charmed away the merchant from his guile,
And turned the farmer's memory from his cattle,
And hushed in sleep the roaring ranks of battle,
For all who heard it dreamed a little while.
 
 
Ah, Exiles wandering over many seas,
Spinning at all times Eire's good to-morrow!
Ah, worldwide Nation, always growing Sorrow!
I also bear a bell branch full of ease.
 
 
I tore it from green boughs winds tossed and hurled,
Green boughs of tossing always, weary, weary!
I tore it from the green boughs of old Eire,
The willow of the many-sorrowed world.
 
 
Ah, Exiles, wandering over many lands!
My bell branch murmurs: the gay bells bring laughter,
Leaping to shake a cobweb from the rafter;
The sad bells bow the forehead on the hands.
 
 
A honeyed ringing: under the new skies
They bring you memories of old village faces,
Cabins gone now, old well-sides, old dear places;
And men who loved the cause that never dies.
 

THE LAMENTATION OF THE OLD PENSIONER

 
I had a chair at every hearth,
When no one turned to see,
With "Look at that old fellow there,
"And who may he be?"
And therefore do I wander now,
And the fret lies on me.
 
 
The road-side trees keep murmuring
Ah, wherefore murmur ye,
As in the old days long gone by,
Green oak and poplar tree?
The well-known faces are all gone
And the fret lies on me.
 

THE BALLAD OF FATHER GILLIGAN

 
The old priest Peter Gilligan
Was weary night and day;
For half his flock were in their beds,
Or under green sods lay.
 
 
Once, while he nodded on a chair,
At the moth-hour of eve,
Another poor man sent for him,
And he began to grieve.
 
 
"I have no rest, nor joy, nor peace,
"For people die and die";
And after cried he, "God forgive!
"My body spake, not I!"
 
 
He knelt, and leaning on the chair
He prayed and fell asleep;
And the moth-hour went from the fields,
And stars began to peep.
 
 
They slowly into millions grew,
And leaves shook in the wind;
And God covered the world with shade,
And whispered to mankind.
 
 
Upon the time of sparrow chirp
When the moths came once more,
The old priest Peter Gilligan
Stood upright on the floor.
 
 
"Mavrone, mavrone! the man has died,
"While I slept on the chair";
He roused his horse out of its sleep,
And rode with little care.
 
 
He rode now as he never rode,
By rocky lane and fen;
The sick man's wife opened the door:
"Father! you come again!"
 
 
"And is the poor man dead?" he cried,
"He died an hour ago,"
The old priest Peter Gilligan
In grief swayed to and fro.
 
 
"When you were gone, he turned and died
"As merry as a bird."
The old priest Peter Gilligan
He knelt him at that word.
 
 
"He who hath made the night of stars
"For souls, who tire and bleed,
"Sent one of His great angels down
"To help me in my need.
 
 
"He who is wrapped in purple robes,
"With planets in His care,
"Had pity on the least of things
"Asleep upon a chair."
 

THE TWO TREES

 
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.
There, through bewildered branches, go
Winged Loves borne on in gentle strife,
Tossing and tossing to and fro
The flaming circle of our life.
When looking on their shaken hair,
And dreaming how they dance and dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care:
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.
 
 
Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows,
With broken boughs, and blackened leaves,
And roots half hidden under snows
Driven by a storm that ever grieves.
For all things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Peering and flying to and fro
To see men's souls bartered and bought.
When they are heard upon the wind,
And when they shake their wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.
 

TO IRELAND IN THE COMING TIMES

 
Know, that I would accounted be
True brother of that company,
Who sang to sweeten Ireland's wrong,
Ballad and story, rann and song;
Nor be I any less of them,
Because the red-rose-bordered hem
Of her, whose history began
Before God made the angelic clan,
Trails all about the written page;
For in the world's first blossoming age
The light fall of her flying feet
Made Ireland's heart begin to beat;
And still the starry candles flare
To help her light foot here and there;
And still the thoughts of Ireland brood
Upon her holy quietude.
 
 
Nor may I less be counted one
With Davis, Mangan, Ferguson,
Because to him, who ponders well,
My rhymes more than their rhyming tell
Of the dim wisdoms old and deep,
That God gives unto man in sleep.
For the elemental beings go
About my table to and fro.
In flood and fire and clay and wind,
They huddle from man's pondering mind;
Yet he who treads in austere ways
May surely meet their ancient gaze.
Man ever journeys on with them
After the red-rose-bordered hem.
Ah, faeries, dancing under the moon,
A Druid land, a Druid tune!
 
 
While still I may, I write for you
The love I lived, the dream I knew.
From our birthday, until we die,
Is but the winking of an eye;
And we, our singing and our love,
The mariners of night above,
And all the wizard things that go
About my table to and fro.
Are passing on to where may be,
In truth's consuming ecstasy
No place for love and dream at all;
For God goes by with white foot-fall.
I cast my heart into my rhymes,
That you, in the dim coming times,
May know how my heart went with them
After the red-rose-bordered hem.
 

THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE

O Rose, thou art sick.

 

William Blake.

TO FLORENCE FARR

Maurteen Bruin

Bridget Bruin

Shawn Bruin

Mary Bruin

Father Hart

A Faery Child

The Scene is laid in the Barony of Kilmacowen, in the County of Sligo, and at a remote time.

Scene. —A room with a hearth on the floor in the middle of a deep alcove to the Right. There are benches in the alcove and a table; and a crucifix on the wall. The alcove is full of a glow of light from the fire. There is an open door facing the audience to the Left, and to the left of this a bench. Through the door one can see the forest. It is night, but the moon or a late sunset glimmers through the trees and carries the eye far off into a vague, mysterious world. MAURTEEN BRUIN, SHAWN BRUIN, and BRIDGET BRUIN sit in the alcove at the table or about the fire. They are dressed in the costume of some remote time, and near them sits an old priest, FATHER HART. He may be dressed as a friar. There is food and drink upon the table. MARY BRUIN stands by the door reading a book. If she looks up she can see through the door into the wood.

BRIDGET

 
Because I bid her clean the pots for supper
She took that old book down out of the thatch;
She has been doubled over it ever since.
We should be deafened by her groans and moans
Had she to work as some do, Father Hart;
Get up at dawn like me and mend and scour
Or ride abroad in the boisterous night like you,
The pyx and blessed bread under your arm.
 

SHAWN

 
Mother, you are too cross.
 

BRIDGET

 
You've married her,
And fear to vex her and so take her part.
 

MAURTEEN (to FATHER HART)

 
It is but right that youth should side with youth;
She quarrels with my wife a bit at times,
And is too deep just now in the old book!
But do not blame her greatly; she will grow
As quiet as a puff-ball in a tree
When but the moons of marriage dawn and die
For half a score of times.
 

FATHER HART

 
Their hearts are wild,
As be the hearts of birds, till children come.
 

BRIDGET

 
She would not mind the kettle, milk the cow,
Or even lay the knives and spread the cloth.
 

SHAWN

 
Mother, if only —
 

MAURTEEN

 
Shawn, this is half empty;
Go, bring up the best bottle that we have.
 

FATHER HART

 
I never saw her read a book before,
What can it be?
 

MAURTEEN (to SHAWN)

 
What are you waiting for?
You must not shake it when you draw the cork;
It's precious wine, so take your time about it.
 

(To Priest.) (SHAWN goes.)

 

 
There was a Spaniard wrecked at Ocris Head,
When I was young, and I have still some bottles.
He cannot bear to hear her blamed; the book
Has lain up in the thatch these fifty years;
My father told me my grandfather wrote it,
And killed a heifer for the binding of it —
But supper's spread, and we can talk and eat
It was little good he got out of the book,
Because it filled his house with rambling fiddlers,
And rambling ballad-makers and the like.
The griddle-bread is there in front of you.
Colleen, what is the wonder in that book,
That you must leave the bread to cool? Had I
Or had my father read or written books
There were no stocking stuffed with yellow guineas
To come when I am dead to Shawn and you.
 

FATHER HART

 
You should not fill your head with foolish dreams.
What are you reading?
 

MARY

 
How a Princess Edane,
A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard
A voice singing on a May Eve like this,
And followed half awake and half asleep,
Until she came into the Land of Faery,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.
And she is still there, busied with a dance
Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood,
Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Persuade the colleen to put down the book;
My grandfather would mutter just such things,
And he was no judge of a dog or a horse,
And any idle boy could blarney him;
Just speak your mind.
 

FATHER HART

 
Put it away, my colleen;
God spreads the heavens above us like great wings
And gives a little round of deeds and days,
And then come the wrecked angels and set snares,
And bait them with light hopes and heavy dreams,
Until the heart is puffed with pride and goes
Half shuddering and half joyous from God's peace;
And it was some wrecked angel, blind with tears,
Who flattered Edane's heart with merry words.
My colleen, I have seen some other girls
Restless and ill at ease, but years went by
And they grew like their neighbours and were glad
In minding children, working at the churn,
And gossiping of weddings and of wakes;
For life moves out of a red flare of dreams
Into a common light of common hours,
Until old age bring the red flare again.
 

MAURTEEN

 
That's true – but she's too young to know it's true.
 

BRIDGET

 
She's old enough to know that it is wrong
To mope and idle.
 

MAURTEEN

 
I've little blame for her;
She's dull when my big son is in the fields,
And that and maybe this good woman's tongue
Have driven her to hide among her dreams
Like children from the dark under the bed-clothes.
 

BRIDGET

 
She'd never do a turn if I were silent.
 

MAURTEEN

 
And maybe it is natural upon May Eve
To dream of the good people. But tell me, girl,
If you've the branch of blessed quicken wood
That women hang upon the post of the door
That they may send good luck into the house?
Remember they may steal new-married brides
After the fall of twilight on May Eve,
Or what old women mutter at the fire
Is but a pack of lies.
 

FATHER HART

 
It may be truth.
We do not know the limit of those powers
God has permitted to the evil spirits
For some mysterious end. You have done right (to MARY);
It's well to keep old innocent customs up.
 

(MARY BRUIN has taken a bough of quicken wood from a seat and hung it on a nail in the door-post. A girl child strangely dressed, perhaps in faery green, comes out of the wood and takes it away.)

MARY

 
I had no sooner hung it on the nail
Before a child ran up out of the wind;
She has caught it in her hand and fondled it;
Her face is pale as water before dawn.
 

FATHER HART

 
Whose child can this be?
 

MAURTEEN

 
No one's child at all.
She often dreams that some one has gone by,
When there was nothing but a puff of wind.
 

MARY

 
They have taken away the blessed quicken wood,
They will not bring good luck into the house;
Yet I am glad that I was courteous to them,
For are not they, likewise, children of God?
 

FATHER HART

 
Colleen, they are the children of the fiend,
And they have power until the end of Time,
When God shall fight with them a great pitched battle
And hack them into pieces.
 

MARY

 
He will smile,
Father, perhaps, and open His great door.
 

FATHER HART

 
Did but the lawless angels see that door
They would fall, slain by everlasting peace;
And when such angels knock upon our doors,
Who goes with them must drive through the same storm.
 

(A thin old arm comes round the door-post and knocks and beckons. It is clearly seen in the silvery light. MARY BRUIN goes to door and stands in it for a moment. MAURTEEN BRUIN is busy filling FATHER HART'S plate. BRIDGET BRUIN stirs the fire.)

MARY (coming to table)

 
There's somebody out there that beckoned me
And raised her hand as though it held a cup,
And she was drinking from it, so it may be
That she is thirsty.
 

(She takes milk from the table and carries it to the door.)

FATHER HART

 
That will be the child
That you would have it was no child at all.
 

BRIDGET

 
And maybe, Father, what he said was true;
For there is not another night in the year
So wicked as to-night.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Nothing can harm us
While the good Father's underneath our roof.
 

MARY

 
A little queer old woman dressed in green.
 

BRIDGET

 
The good people beg for milk and fire
Upon May Eve – woe to the house that gives,
For they have power upon it for a year.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Hush, woman, hush!
 

BRIDGET

 
She's given milk away.
I knew she would bring evil on the house.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Who was it?
 

MARY

 
Both the tongue and face were strange.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Some strangers came last week to Clover Hill;
She must be one of them.
 

BRIDGET

 
I am afraid.
 

FATHER HART

 
The Cross will keep all evil from the house
While it hangs there.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Come, sit beside me, colleen,
And put away your dreams of discontent,
For I would have you light up my last days,
Like the good glow of the turf; and when I die
You'll be the wealthiest hereabout, for, colleen,
I have a stocking full of yellow guineas
Hidden away where nobody can find it.
 

BRIDGET

 
You are the fool of every pretty face,
And I must spare and pinch that my son's wife
May have all kinds of ribbons for her head.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Do not be cross; she is a right good girl!
The butter is by your elbow, Father Hart.
My colleen, have not Fate and Time and Change
Done well for me and for old Bridget there?
We have a hundred acres of good land,
And sit beside each other at the fire.
I have this reverend Father for my friend,
I look upon your face and my son's face —
We've put his plate by yours – and here he comes,
And brings with him the only thing we have lacked,
Abundance of good wine. (SHAWN comes in.) Stir up the fire,
And put new turf upon it till it blaze;
To watch the turf-smoke coiling from the fire,
And feel content and wisdom in your heart,
This is the best of life; when we are young
We long to tread a way none trod before,
But find the excellent old way through love,
And through the care of children, to the hour
For bidding Fate and Time and Change goodbye.
 

(MARY takes a sod of turf from the fire and goes out through the door. SHAWN follows her and meets her coming in.)

SHAWN

 
What is it draws you to the chill o' the wood?
There is a light among the stems of the trees
That makes one shiver.
 

MARY

 
A little queer old man
Made me a sign to show he wanted fire
To light his pipe.
 

BRIDGET

 
You've given milk and fire
Upon the unluckiest night of the year and brought,
For all you know, evil upon the house.
Before you married you were idle and fine
And went about with ribbons on your head;
And now – no, Father, I will speak my mind —
She is not a fitting wife for any man —
 

SHAWN

 
Be quiet, Mother!
 

MAURTEEN

 
You are much too cross.
 

MARY

 
What do I care if I have given this house,
Where I must hear all day a bitter tongue,
Into the power of faeries!
 

BRIDGET

 
You know well
How calling the good people by that name,
Or talking of them over much at all,
May bring all kinds of evil on the house.
 

MARY

 
Come, faeries, take me out of this dull house!
Let me have all the freedom I have lost;
Work when I will and idle when I will!
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind.
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
 

FATHER HART

 
You cannot know the meaning of your words.
 

MARY

 
Father, I am right weary of four tongues:
A tongue that is too crafty and too wise,
A tongue that is too godly and too grave,
A tongue that is more bitter than the tide,
And a kind tongue too full of drowsy love,
Of drowsy love and my captivity.
 

(SHAWN BRUIN leads her to a seat at the left of the door.)

SHAWN

 
Do not blame me; I often lie awake
Thinking that all things trouble your bright head.
How beautiful it is – your broad pale forehead
Under a cloudy blossoming of hair!
Sit down beside me here – these are too old,
And have forgotten they were ever young.
 

MARY

 
O, you are the great door-post of this house,
And I the branch of blessed quicken wood,
And if I could I'd hang upon the post,
Till I had brought good luck into the house.
 

(She would put her arms about him, but looks shyly at the priest and lets her arms fall.)

FATHER HART

 
My daughter, take his hand – by love alone
God binds us to Himself and to the hearth,
That shuts us from the waste beyond His peace,
From maddening freedom and bewildering light.
 

SHAWN

 
Would that the world were mine to give it you,
And not its quiet hearths alone, but even
All that bewilderment of light and freedom,
If you would have it.
 

MARY

 
I would take the world
And break it into pieces in my hands
To see you smile watching it crumble away.
 

SHAWN

 
Then I would mould a world of fire and dew,
With no one bitter, grave or over wise,
And nothing marred or old to do you wrong,
And crowd the enraptured quiet of the sky
With candles burning to your lonely face.
 

MARY

 
Your looks are all the candles that I need.
 

SHAWN

 
Once a fly dancing in a beam of the sun,
Or the light wind blowing out of the dawn,
Could fill your heart with dreams none other knew,
But now the indissoluble sacrament
Has mixed your heart that was most proud and cold
With my warm heart for ever; the sun and moon
Must fade and heaven be rolled up like a scroll;
But your white spirit still walk by my spirit.
 

(A Voice singing in the wood.)

MAURTEEN

 
There's some one singing. Why, it's but a child.
It sang, "The lonely of heart is withered away."
A strange song for a child, but she sings sweetly.
Listen, listen!
 

(Goes to door.)

MARY

 
O, cling close to me,
Because I have said wicked things to-night.
 

THE VOICE

 
The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away.
While the faeries dance in a place apart,
Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air;
For they hear the wind laugh and murmur and sing
Of a land where even the old are fair,
And even the wise are merry of tongue;
But I heard a reed of Coolaney say,
"When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung
The lonely of heart is withered away!"
 

MAURTEEN

 
Being happy, I would have all others happy,
So I will bring her in out of the cold.
 

(He brings in the faery child.)

THE CHILD

 
I tire of winds and waters and pale lights.
 

MAURTEEN

 
And that's no wonder, for when night has fallen
The wood's a cold and a bewildering place,
But you are welcome here.
 

THE CHILD

 
I am welcome here.
For when I tire of this warm little house
There is one here that must away, away.
 

MAURTEEN

 
O, listen to her dreamy and strange talk.
Are you not cold?
 

THE CHILD

 
I will crouch down beside you,
For I have run a long, long way this night.
 

BRIDGET

 
You have a comely shape.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Your hair is wet.
 

BRIDGET

 
I'll warm your chilly feet.
 

MAURTEEN

 
You have come indeed
A long, long way – for I have never seen
Your pretty face – and must be tired and hungry,
Here is some bread and wine.
 

THE CHILD

 
The wine is bitter.
Old mother, have you no sweet food for me?
 

BRIDGET

 
I have some honey.
 

(She goes into the next room.)

MAURTEEN

 
You have coaxing ways,
The mother was quite cross before you came.
 

(BRIDGET returns with the honey and fills a porringer with milk.)

BRIDGET

 
She is the child of gentle people; look
At her white hands and at her pretty dress.
I've brought you some new milk, but wait a while
And I will put it to the fire to warm,
For things well fitted for poor folk like us
Would never please a high-born child like you.
 

THE CHILD

 
From dawn, when you must blow the fire ablaze,
You work your fingers to the bone, old mother.
The young may lie in bed and dream and hope,
But you must work your fingers to the bone
Because your heart is old.
 

BRIDGET

 
The young are idle.
 

THE CHILD

 
Your memories have made you wise, old father;
The young must sigh through many a dream and hope,
But you are wise because your heart is old.
 

(BRIDGET gives her more bread and honey.)

MAURTEEN

 
O, who would think to find so young a girl
Loving old age and wisdom?
 

THE CHILD

 
No more, mother.
 

MAURTEEN

 
What a small bite! The milk is ready now. (Hands it to her.) What a small sip!
 

THE CHILD

 
Put on my shoes, old mother.
Now I would like to dance now I have eaten,
The reeds are dancing by Coolaney lake,
And I would like to dance until the reeds
And the white waves have danced themselves asleep.
 

(BRIDGET puts on the shoes, and the CHILD is about to dance, but suddenly sees the crucifix and shrieks and covers her eyes.)

 
What is that ugly thing on the black cross?
 

FATHER HART

 
You cannot know how naughty your words are!
That is our Blessed Lord.
 

THE CHILD

 
Hide it away!
 

BRIDGET

 
I have begun to be afraid again.
 

THE CHILD

 
Hide it away!
 

MAURTEEN

 
That would be wickedness!
 

BRIDGET

 
That would be sacrilege!
 

THE CHILD

 
The tortured thing!
Hide it away!
 

MAURTEEN

 
Her parents are to blame.
 

FATHER HART

 
That is the image of the Son of God.
 

THE CHILD (caressing him)

 
Hide it away, hide it away!
 

MAURTEEN

 
No, no.
 

FATHER HART

 
Because you are so young and like a bird,
That must take fright at every stir of the leaves,
I will go take it down.
 

THE CHILD

 
Hide it away!
And cover it out of sight and out of mind!
 

(FATHER HART takes crucifix from wall and carries it towards inner room.)

FATHER HART

 
Since you have come into this barony,
I will instruct you in our blessed faith;
And being so keen witted you'll soon learn.
 

(To the others.)

 
We must be tender to all budding things,
Our Maker let no thought of Calvary
Trouble the morning stars in their first song.
 

(Puts crucifix in inner room.)

THE CHILD

 
Here is level ground for dancing; I will dance.
 

(Sings.)

 
"The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away."
 

(She dances.)

MARY (to SHAWN)

 
Just now when she came near I thought I heard
Other small steps beating upon the floor,
And a faint music blowing in the wind,
Invisible pipes giving her feet the tune.
 

SHAWN

 
I heard no steps but hers.
 

MARY

 
I hear them now,
The unholy powers are dancing in the house.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Come over here, and if you promise me
Not to talk wickedly of holy things
I will give you something.
 

THE CHILD

 
Bring it me, old father.
 

MAURTEEN

 
Here are some ribbons that I bought in the town
For my son's wife – but she will let me give them
To tie up that wild hair the winds have tumbled.
 

THE CHILD

 
Come, tell me, do you love me?
 

MAURTEEN

 
Yes, I love you.
 

THE CHILD

 
Ah, but you love this fireside. Do you love me?
 

FATHER HART

 
When the Almighty puts so great a share
Of His own ageless youth into a creature,
To look is but to love.
 

THE CHILD

 
But you love Him?
 

BRIDGET

 
She is blaspheming.
 

THE CHILD

 
And do you love me too?
 

MARY

 
I do not know.
 

THE CHILD

 
You love that young man there,
Yet I could make you ride upon the winds,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
 

MARY

 
Queen of Angels and kind saints defend us!
Some dreadful thing will happen. A while ago
She took away the blessed quicken wood.
 

FATHER HART

 
You fear because of her unmeasured prattle;
She knows no better. Child, how old are you?
 

THE CHILD

 
When winter sleep is abroad my hair grows thin,
My feet unsteady. When the leaves awaken
My mother carries me in her golden arms;
I'll soon put on my womanhood and marry
The spirits of wood and water, but who can tell
When I was born for the first time? I think
I am much older than the eagle cock
That blinks and blinks on Ballygawley Hill,
And he is the oldest thing under the moon.
 

FATHER HART

 
O she is of the faery people.
 

THE CHILD

 
One called,
I sent my messengers for milk and fire,
She called again and after that I came.
 

(All except SHAWN and MARY BRUIN gather behind the priest for protection.)

SHAWN (rising)

 
Though you have made all these obedient,
You have not charmed my sight and won from me
A wish or gift to make you powerful;
I'll turn you from the house.
 

FATHER HART

 
No, I will face her.
 

THE CHILD

 
Because you took away the crucifix
I am so mighty that there's none can pass,
Unless I will it, where my feet have danced
Or where I've whirled my finger-tops.
 

(SHAWN tries to approach her and cannot.)

MAURTEEN

 
Look, look!
There something stops him – look how he moves his hands
As though he rubbed them on a wall of glass!
 

FATHER HART

 
I will confront this mighty spirit alone;
Be not afraid, the Father is with us,
The Holy Martyrs and the Innocents,
The adoring Magi in their coats of mail,
And He who died and rose on the third day,
And all the nine angelic hierarchies.
 

(The CHILD kneels upon the settle beside Mary and puts her arms about her.)

 
Cry, daughter, to the Angels and the Saints.
 

THE CHILD

 
You shall go with me, newly-married bride,
And gaze upon a merrier multitude.
White-armed Nuala, Aengus of the Birds,
Feacra of the hurtling foam, and him
Who is the ruler of the Western Host,
Finvarra, and their Land of Heart's Desire,
Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom, Time an endless song.
I kiss you and the world begins to fade.
 

SHAWN

 
Awake out of that trance – and cover up
Your eyes and ears.
 

FATHER HART

 
She must both look and listen,
For only the soul's choice can save her now.
Come over to me, daughter; stand beside me;
Think of this house and of your duties in it.
 

THE CHILD

 
Stay and come with me, newly-married bride,
For if you hear him you grow like the rest;
Bear children, cook, and bend above the churn,
And wrangle over butter, fowl, and eggs,
Until at last, grown old and bitter of tongue,
You're crouching there and shivering at the grave.
 

FATHER HART

 
Daughter, I point you out the way to Heaven.
 

THE CHILD

 
But I can lead you, newly-married bride,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue,
And where kind tongues bring no captivity;
For we are but obedient to the thoughts
That drift into the mind at a wink of the eye.
 

FATHER HART

 
By the dear Name of the One crucified,
I bid you, Mary Bruin, come to me.
 

THE CHILD

 
I keep you in the name of your own heart.
 

FATHER HART

 
It is because I put away the crucifix
That I am nothing, and my power is nothing.
I'll bring it here again.
 

MAURTEEN (clinging to him)

 
No.
 

BRIDGET

 
Do not leave us.
 

FATHER HART

 
O, let me go before it is too late;
It is my sin alone that brought it all.
 

(Singing outside.)

THE CHILD

 
I hear them sing, "Come, newly-married bride,
Come, to the woods and waters and pale lights."
 

MARY

 
I will go with you.
 

FATHER HART

 
She is lost, alas!
 

THE CHILD (standing by the door)

 
But clinging mortal hope must fall from you,
For we who ride the winds, run on the waves,
And dance upon the mountains are more light
Than dewdrops on the banner of the dawn.
 

MARY

 
O, take me with you.
 

SHAWN

 
Beloved, I will keep you.
I've more than words, I have these arms to hold you,
Nor all the faery host, do what they please,
Shall ever make me loosen you from these arms.
 

MARY

 
Dear face! Dear voice!
 

THE CHILD

 
Come, newly-married bride.
 

MARY

 
I always loved her world – and yet – and yet —
 

THE CHILD

 
White bird, white bird, come with me, little bird.
 

MARY

 
She calls me!
 

THE CHILD

 
Come with me, little bird.
 

(Distant dancing figures appear in the wood.)

MARY

 
I can hear songs and dancing.
 

SHAWN

 
Stay with me.
 

MARY

 
I think that I would stay – and yet – and yet —
 

THE CHILD

 
Come, little bird, with crest of gold.
 

MARY (very softly)

 
And yet —
 

THE CHILD

 
Come, little bird with silver feet!
 

(MARY BRUIN dies, and the CHILD goes.)

SHAWN

 
She is dead!
 

BRIDGET

 
Come from that image; body and soul are gone.
You have thrown your arms about a drift of leaves,
Or bole of an ash-tree changed into her image.
 

FATHER HART

 
Thus do the spirits of evil snatch their prey,
Almost out of the very hand of God;
And day by day their power is more and more,
And men and women leave old paths, for pride
Comes knocking with thin knuckles on the heart.
 

(Outside there are dancing figures, and it may be a white bird, and many voices singing:)

 
"The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away;
While the faeries dance in a place apart,
Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air;
For they hear the wind laugh and murmur and sing
Of a land where even the old are fair,
And even the wise are merry of tongue;
But I heard a reed of Coolaney say —
'When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung,
The lonely of heart is withered away.'"