Project Gutenberg's In The Seven Woods, by William Butler (W.B.) Yeats This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: In The Seven Woods Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age Author: William Butler (W.B.) Yeats Release Date: December 11, 2009 [EBook #30652] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE SEVEN WOODS *** Produced by Marius Masi, Meredith Bach and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) IN THE SEVEN WOODS BY THE SAME WRITER The Secret Rose The Celtic Twilight Poems The Wind among the Reeds The Shadowy Waters Ideas of Good and Evil IN THE SEVEN WOODS Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age BY W. B. YEATS Decoration THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1903 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up, electrotyped, and published August, 1903. Decoration J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass. U.S.A. IN THE SEVEN WOODS IN THE SEVEN WOODS: BEING POEMS CHIEFLY OF THE IRISH HEROIC AGE. IN THE SEVEN WOODS. 1 I have heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods Make their faint thunder, and the garden bees Hum in the lime tree flowers; and put away The unavailing outcries and the old bitterness 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. I am contented for I know that Quiet Wanders laughing and eating her wild heart Among pigeons and bees, while that Great Archer, Who but awaits His hour to shoot, still hangs A cloudy quiver over Parc-na-Lee. August, 1902. THE OLD AGE OF QUEEN MAEVE. Maeve the great queen was pacing to and fro, Between the walls covered with beaten bronze, In her high house at Cruachan; the long hearth, Flickering with ash and hazel, but half showed Where the tired horse-boys lay upon the rushes, Or on the benches underneath the walls, In comfortable sleep; all living slept But that great queen, who more than half the night Had paced from door to fire and fire to door. Though now in her old age, in her young age She had been beautiful in that old way That’s all but gone; for the proud heart is gone And the fool heart of the counting-house fears all But soft beauty and indolent desire. She could have called over the rim of the world Whatever woman’s lover had hit her fancy, And yet had been great bodied and great limbed, Fashioned to be the mother of strong children; And she’d had lucky eyes and a high heart, And wisdom that caught fire like the dried flax, At need, and made her beautiful and fierce, Sudden and laughing. O unquiet heart, Why do you praise another, praising her, As if there were no tale but your own tale Worth knitting to a measure of sweet sound? Have I not bid you tell of that great queen Who has been buried some two thousand years? When night was at its deepest, a wild goose Cried from the porter’s lodge, and with long clamour Shook the ale horns and shields upon their hooks; But the horse-boys slept on, as though some power Had filled the house with Druid heaviness; And wondering who of the many changing Sidhe Had come as in the old times to counsel her, Maeve walked, yet with slow footfall being old, To that small chamber by the outer gate. The porter slept although he sat upright With still and stony limbs and open eyes. Maeve waited, and when that ear-piercing noise Broke from his parted lips and broke again, 2 3 4 She laid a hand on either of his shoulders, And shook him wide awake, and bid him say Who of the wandering many-changing ones Had troubled his sleep. But all he had to say Was that, the air being heavy and the dogs More still than they had been for a good month, He had fallen asleep, and, though he had dreamed nothing, He could remember when he had had fine dreams. It was before the time of the great war Over the White-Horned Bull, and the Brown Bull. She turned away; he turned again to sleep That no god troubled now, and, wondering What matters were afoot among the Sidhe, Maeve walked through that great hall, and with a sigh Lifted the curtain of her sleeping room, Remembering that she too had seemed divine To many thousand eyes, and to her own One that the generations had long waited That work too difficult for mortal hands Might be accomplished. Bunching the curtain up She saw her husband Ailell sleeping there, And thought of days when he’d had a straight body, And of that famous Fergus, Nessa’s husband, 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. He said, ‘High Queen of Cruachan and Mag Ai A king of the Great Plain would speak with you.’ 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.’ ‘I come from the undimmed rivers to bid you call The children of the Maines out of sleep, And set them digging into Anbual’s hill. We shadows, while they uproot his earthy house, Will overthrow his shadows and carry off Caer, his blue eyed daughter that I love. I helped your fathers when they built these walls And I would have your help in my great need, Queen of high Cruachan.’ ‘I obey your will With speedy feet and a most thankful heart: For you have been, O Aengus of the birds, Our giver of good counsel and good luck.’ And with a groan, as if the mortal breath Could but awaken sadly upon lips That happier breath had moved, her husband turned Face downward, tossing in a troubled sleep; But Maeve, and not with a slow feeble foot, Came to the threshold of the painted house, 5 6 7 Where her grandchildren slept, and cried aloud, Until the pillared dark began to stir With shouting and the clang of unhooked arms. She told them of the many-changing ones; And all that night, and all through the next day To middle night, they dug into the hill. At middle night great cats with silver claws, Bodies of shadow and blind eyes like pearls, Came up out of the hole, and red-eared hounds With long white bodies came out of the air Suddenly, and ran at them and harried them. 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.’ Her high heart was glad, And when the uproar ran along the grass She followed with light footfall in the midst, Till it died out where an old thorn tree stood. Friend of these many years, you too had stood With equal courage in that whirling rout; For you, although you’ve not her wandering heart, Have all that greatness, and not hers alone. For there is no high story about queens In any ancient book but tells of you, And when I’ve heard how they grew old and died Or fell into unhappiness I’ve said; ‘She will grow old and die and she has wept!’ And when I’d write it out anew, the words, Half crazy with the thought, She too has wept! Outrun the measure. I’d tell of that great queen Who stood amid a silence by the thorn Until two lovers came out of the air With bodies made out of soft fire. The one About whose face birds wagged their fiery wings Said, ‘Aengus and his sweetheart give their thanks To Maeve and to Maeve’s household, owing all In owing them the bride-bed that gives peace.’ Then Maeve, ‘O Aengus, Master of all lovers, A thousand years ago you held high talk With the first kings of many pillared Cruachan. O when will you grow weary.’ They had vanished, But out of the dark air over her head there came A murmur of soft words and meeting lips. BAILE AND AILLINN. Argument. Baile and Aillinn were lovers, but Aengus, the Master of Love, wishing them to be happy in his own land among the dead, told to each a story of the other’s death, so that their hearts were broken and they died. I hardly hear the curlew cry, 8 9 10 Nor the grey rush when wind is high, Before my thoughts begin to run On the heir of Ulad, Buan’s son, Baile who had the honey mouth, And that mild woman of the south, Aillinn, who was King Lugaid’s heir. Their love was never drowned in care Of this or that thing, nor grew cold Because their bodies had grown old; Being forbid to marry on earth They blossomed to immortal mirth. About the time when Christ was born, When the long wars for the White Horn And the Brown Bull had not yet come, Young Baile Honey-Mouth, whom some Called rather Baile Little-Land, Rode out of Emain with a band Of harpers and young men, and they Imagined, as they struck the way To many pastured Muirthemne, That all things fell out happily And there, for all that fools had said, 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. Who was it put so great a scorn In the grey reeds that night and morn Are trodden and broken by the herds, And in the light bodies of birds That north wind tumbles to and fro And pinches among hail and snow? That runner said, ‘I am from the south; 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.” A young man cried and kissed her hand 11 12 “O lady, wed with one of us;” And when no face grew piteous For any gentle thing she spake She fell and died of the heart-break.’ Because a lover’s heart’s worn out Being tumbled and blown about By its own blind imagining, And will believe that anything That is bad enough to be true, is true, Baile’s heart was broken in two; And he being laid upon green boughs Was carried to the goodly house Where the Hound of Ulad sat before The brazen pillars of his door; His face bowed low to weep the end Of the harper’s daughter and her friend; For although years had passed away He always wept them on that day, For on that day they had been betrayed; And now that Honey-Mouth is laid Under a cairn of sleepy stone Before his eyes, he has tears for none, Although he is carrying stone, but two For whom the cairn’s but heaped anew. We hold because our memory is So full of that thing and of this That out of sight is out of mind. But the grey rush under the wind And the grey bird with crooked bill Have such long memories that they still Remember Deirdre and her man, And when we walk with Kate or Nan About the windy water side Our heart can hear the voices chide. How could we be so soon content Who know the way that Naoise went? And they have news of Deirdre’s eyes Who being lovely was so wise, Ah wise, my heart knows well how wise. Now had that old gaunt crafty one, Gathering his cloak about him, run Where Aillinn rode with waiting maids Who amid leafy lights and shades Dreamed of the hands that would unlace Their bodices in some dim place When they had come to the marriage bed; And harpers pondering with bowed head A music that had thought enough Of the ebb of all things to make love Grow gentle without sorrowings; And leather-coated men with slings Who peered about on every side; And amid leafy light he cried, ‘He is well out of wind and wave, They have heaped the stones above his grave In Muirthemne and over it In changeless Ogham letters writ 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, 13 14 15 For they should clip and clip again Where wild bees hive on the Great Plain. Therefore it is but little news That put this hurry in my shoes.’ And hurrying to the south he came To that high hill the herdsmen name The Hill Seat of Leighin, because Some god or king had made the laws That held the land together there, In old times among the clouds of the air. That old man climbed; the day grew dim; Two swans came flying up to him Linked by a gold chain each to each And with low murmuring laughing speech Alighted on the windy grass. They knew him: his changed body was Tall, proud and ruddy, and light wings Were hovering over the harp strings That Etain, Midhir’s wife, had wove In the hid place, being crazed by love. What shall I call them? fish that swim Scale rubbing scale where light is dim By a broad water-lily leaf; Or mice in the one wheaten sheaf Forgotten at the threshing place; Or birds lost in the one clear space Of morning light in a dim sky; Or it may be, the eyelids of one eye Or the door pillars of one house, Or two sweet blossoming apple boughs That have one shadow on the ground; Or the two strings that made one sound Where that wise harper’s finger ran; For this young girl and this young man Have happiness without an end Because they have made so good a friend. They know all wonders, for they pass The towery gates of Gorias And Findrias and Falias And long-forgotten Murias, Among the giant kings whose hoard Cauldron and spear and stone and sword Was robbed before Earth gave the wheat; Wandering from broken street to street They come where some huge watcher is And tremble with their love and kiss. They know undying things, for they Wander where earth withers away, Though nothing troubles the great streams But light from the pale stars, and gleams From the holy orchards, where there is none 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 16 17 18 And waving white wings to and fro Awaken wanderings of light air To stir their coverlet and their hair. And poets found, old writers say, A yew tree where his body lay, But a wild apple hid the grass With its sweet blossom where hers was; And being in good heart, because A better time had come again After the deaths of many men, And that long fighting at the ford, They wrote on tablets of thin board, Made of the apple and the yew, All the love stories that they knew. Let rush and bird cry out their fill Of the harper’s daughter if they will, Beloved, I am not afraid of her She is not wiser nor lovelier, 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. THE ARROW. I thought of your beauty and this arrow Made out of a wild thought is in my marrow. There’s no man may look upon her, no man, As when newly grown to be a woman, Blossom pale, she pulled down the pale blossom At the moth hour and hid it in her bosom. This beauty’s kinder yet for a reason I could weep that the old is out of season. THE FOLLY OF BEING COMFORTED. One that is ever kind said yesterday: ‘Your well beloved’s hair has threads of grey And little shadows come about her eyes; Time can but make it easier to be wise Though now it’s hard, till trouble is at an end; And so be patient, be wise and patient, friend.’ But heart, there is no comfort, not a grain. Time can but make her beauty over again Because of that great nobleness of hers; The fire that stirs about her, when she stirs Burns but more clearly; O she had not these ways When all the wild summer was in her gaze. O heart, O heart, if she’d but turn her head, You’d know the folly of being comforted. 19 20 21 THE WITHERING OF THE BOUGHS. I cried when the moon was murmuring to the birds, ‘Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will, I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words, For the roads are unending and there is no place to my mind.’ The honey-pale moon lay low on the sleepy hill And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams; No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind, The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams. I know of the leafy paths that the witches take, Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool, And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake; And of apple islands where the Danaan kind Wind and unwind their dances when the light grows cool On the island lawns, their feet where the pale foam gleams; 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; I know, and the curlew and peewit on Echtge of streams; No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind, The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams. ADAM’S CURSE. 22 23 We sat together at one summer’s end That beautiful mild woman your close friend And you and I, and talked of poetry. 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 Murmured with her young voice, for whose mild sake There’s many a one shall find out all heartache In finding that it’s young and mild and low. ‘There is one thing that all we women know Although we never heard of it at school, That we must labour to be beautiful.’ 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.’ We sat grown quiet at the name of love. We saw the last embers of daylight die And in the trembling blue-green of the sky A moon, worn as if it had been a shell Washed by time’s waters as they rose and fell About the stars and broke in days and years. 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. THE SONG OF RED HANRAHAN. 24 25 The old brown thorn trees break in two high over Cummen Strand Under a bitter black wind that blows from the left hand, Our courage breaks like an old tree in a black wind and dies; But we have hidden in our hearts the flame out of the eyes 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; But we have all bent low and low and kissed the quiet feet Of Cathleen the daughter of Houlihan. The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare, For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air; Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood; But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood Is Cathleen the daughter of Houlihan. THE OLD MEN ADMIRING THEMSELVES IN THE WATER. I heard the old, old men say ‘Everything alters, And one by one we drop away.’ They had hands like claws, and their knees Were twisted like the old thorn trees By the waters. I heard the old, old men say ‘All that’s beautiful drifts away Like the waters.’ UNDER THE MOON. I have no happiness in dreaming of Brycelinde; Nor Avalon the grass green hollow, nor Joyous Isle, Where one found Lancelot crazed and hid him for a while, Nor Ulad when Naoise had thrown a sail upon the wind, Nor lands that seem too dim to be burdens on the heart, Land-under-Wave, where out of the moon’s light and the sun’s Seven old sisters wind the threads of the long lived ones, Land-of-the-Tower, where Aengus has thrown the gates apart, And Wood-of-Wonders, where one kills an ox at dawn To find it when night falls laid on a golden bier: Therein are many queens like Branwen, and Guinivere; And Niam, and Laban, and Fand, who could change to an otter or fawn And the wood-woman whose lover was changed to a blue-eyed hawk; And whether I go in my dreams by woodland, or dun, or shore, Or on the unpeopled waves with kings to pull at the oar, I hear the harp string praise them or hear their mournful talk. 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. 26 27 28 29 THE PLAYERS ASK FOR A BLESSING ON THE PSALTERIES AND THEMSELVES. Three Voices together Hurry to bless the hands that play, The mouths that speak, the notes and strings, O masters of the glittering town! O! lay the shrilly trumpet down, Though drunken with the flags that sway Over the ramparts and the towers, And with the waving of your wings. First Voice Maybe they linger by the way; One gathers up his purple gown; One leans and mutters by the wall; He dreads the weight of mortal hours. Second Voice O no, O no, they hurry down Like plovers that have heard the call. Third Voice O, kinsmen of the Three in One, O, kinsmen bless the hands that play. 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. THE RIDER FROM THE NORTH. From the play of The Country of the Young. 29 30 There’s many a strong farmer Whose heart would break in two If he could see the townland That we are riding to; Boughs have their fruit and blossom, At all times of the year, Rivers are running over With red beer and brown beer. An old man plays the bagpipes In a golden and silver wood, Queens, their eyes blue like the ice, Are dancing in a crowd. The little fox he murmured, ‘O what is the world’s bane?’ The sun was laughing sweetly, The moon plucked at my rein; But the little red fox murmured, ‘O do not pluck at his rein, He is riding to the townland That is the world’s bane.’ When their hearts are so high, 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. For O the strong farmers That would let the spade lie, For their hearts would be like a cup That somebody had drunk dry. The little fox he murmured, ‘O what is the world’s bane?’ The sun was laughing sweetly, The moon plucked at my rein; But the little red fox murmured, ‘O do not pluck at his rein, He is riding to the townland That is the world’s bane.’ Michael will unhook his trumpet From a bough overhead, And blow a little noise When the supper has been spread. Gabriel will come from the water With a fish tail, and talk Of wonders that have happened On wet roads where men walk, And lift up an old horn Of hammered silver, and drink Till he has fallen asleep Upon the starry brink. The little fox he murmured, ‘O what is the world’s bane?’ The sun was laughing sweetly, The moon plucked at my rein; But the little red fox murmured, ‘O do not pluck at his rein, He is riding to the townland, That is the world’s bane.’ 31 32 33 I made some of these poems walking about among the Seven Woods, before the big wind of nineteen hundred and three blew down so many trees, & troubled the wild creatures, & changed the look of things; and I thought out there a good part of the play which follows. The first shape of it came to me in a dream, but it changed much in the making, foreshadowing, it may be, a change that may bring a less dream-burdened will into my verses. 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. ON BAILE’S STRAND: A PLAY. THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY. CUCHULLAIN, the King of Muirthemne. CONCOBAR, the High King of Ullad. DAIRE, a King. FINTAIN, a blind man. BARACH, a fool. A Young Man. Young Kings and Old Kings. SCENE: A great hall by the sea close to Dundalgan. There are two great chairs on either side of the hall, each raised a little from the ground, and on the back of the one chair is carved and painted a woman with a fish’s tail, and on the back of the other a hound. There are smaller chairs and benches raised in tiers round the walls. There is a great ale vat at one side near a small door, & a large door at the back through which one can see the sea. Barach, a tall thin man with long ragged hair, dressed in skins, comes in at the side door. He is leading Fintain, a fat blind man, who is somewhat older. BARACH. I will shut the door, for this wind out of the sea gets into my bones, and if I leave but an inch for the wind there is one like a flake of sea-frost that might come into the house. FINTAIN. What is his name, fool? BARACH. It’s a woman from among the Riders of the Sidhe. It’s Boann herself from the river. She has left the Dagda’s bed, and gone through the salt of the sea & up here to the strand of Baile, and all for love of me. Let her keep her husband’s bed, for she’ll have none of me. Nobody knows how lecherous these goddesses are. I see her in every kind of shape but oftener than not she’s in the wind and cries ‘give a kiss and put your arms about me.’ But no, she’ll have no more of me. Yesterday when I put out my lips to kiss her, there was nothing there but the wind. She’s bad, Fintain. O, she’s bad. I had better shut the big door too. (He is going towards the big door but turns hearing Fintain’s voice.) FINTAIN. 34 35 36