Title:   The Rose

Subject:  

Author:   William Butler Yeats

Keywords:  

Creator:  

PDF Version:   1.2



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Bookmarks





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The Rose

William Butler Yeats



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Page No 2


Table of Contents

The Rose ...............................................................................................................................................................1

William Butler Yeats...............................................................................................................................1

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time...................................................................................................1

Fergus And The Druid.............................................................................................................................2

Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea...............................................................................................................3

The Rose Of The World ...........................................................................................................................6

The Rose Of Peace ...................................................................................................................................6

The Rose Of Battle ...................................................................................................................................7

A Faery Song...........................................................................................................................................8

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree.......................................................................................................................8

A Cradle Song ..........................................................................................................................................9

The Pity Of Love.....................................................................................................................................9

The Sorrow Of Love..............................................................................................................................10

When You Are Old................................................................................................................................10

The White Birds .....................................................................................................................................11

A Dream Of Death .................................................................................................................................11

The Countess Cathleen In Paradise ........................................................................................................12

Who Goes With Fergus? ........................................................................................................................12

The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland..................................................................................................13

The Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish  Novelists  .........................................14

The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner ................................................................................................15

The Ballad Of Father Gilligan...............................................................................................................15

The Two Trees.......................................................................................................................................17

To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire ............................................................................................18

To Ireland In The Coming Times..........................................................................................................18


The Rose

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Page No 3


The Rose

William Butler Yeats

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time 

Fergus And The Druid 

Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea 

The Rose Of The World 

The Rose Of Peace 

The Rose Of Battle 

A Faery Song 

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree 

A Cradle Song 

The Pity Of Love 

The Sorrow Of Love 

When You Are Old 

The White Birds 

A Dream Of Death 

The Countess Cathleen In Paradise 

Who Goes With Fergus? 

The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland 

The Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish Novelists 

The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner 

The Ballad Of Father Gilligan 

The Two Trees 

To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire 

To Ireland In The Coming Times  

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time

Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days! 

Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways: 

Cuchulain battling with the bitter tide; 

The Druid, grey, woodnurtured, quieteyed, 

Who cast round Fergus dreams, and ruin untold; 

And thine own sadness, where of stars, grown old 

In dancing silversandalled on the sea, 

Sing in their high and lonely melody. 

Come near, that no more blinded hy man's fate, 

I find under the boughs of love and hate, 

In all poor foolish things that live a day, 

Eternal beauty wandering on her way. 

The Rose 1



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Page No 4


Come near, come near, come near  Ah, leave me still 

A little space for the rosebreath to fill! 

Lest I no more bear common things that crave; 

The weak worm hiding down in its small cave, 

The fieldmouse running by me in the grass, 

And heavy mortal hopes that toil and pass; 

But seek alone to hear the strange things said 

By God to the bright hearts of those long dead, 

And learn to chaunt a tongue men do not know. 

Come near; I would, before my time to go, 

Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways: 

Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days. 

Fergus And The Druid

Fergus. This whole day have I followed in the rocks, 

And you have changed and flowed from shape to shape, 

First as a raven on whose ancient wings 

Scarcely a feather lingered, then you seemed 

A weasel moving on from stone to stone, 

And now at last you wear a human shape, 

A thin grey man half lost in gathering night. 

Druid. What would you, king of the proud Red Branch kings? 

Fergus. This would I Say, most wise of living souls: 

Young subtle Conchubar sat close by me 

When I gave judgment, and his words were wise, 

And what to me was burden without end, 

To him seemed easy, So I laid the crown 

Upon his head to cast away my sorrow. 

Druid. What would you, king of the proud Red Branch kings? 

Fergus. A king and proud! and that is my despair. 

I feast amid my people on the hill, 

And pace the woods, and drive my chariotwheels 

In the white border of the murmuring sea; 

And still I feel the crown upon my head 

Druid. What would you, Fergus? 


The Rose

Fergus And The Druid 2



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Page No 5


Fergus. Be no more a king 

But learn the dreaming wisdom that is yours. 

Druid. Look on my thin grey hair and hollow cheeks 

And on these hands that may not lift the sword, 

This body trembling like a windblown reed. 

No woman's loved me, no man sought my help. 

Fergus. A king is but a foolish labourer 

Who wastes his blood to be another's dream. 

Druid. Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams; 

Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round. 

Fergus. I See my life go drifting like a river 

From change to change; I have been many things  

A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light 

Upon a sword, a firtree on a hill, 

An old slave grinding at a heavy quern, 

A king sitting upon a chair of gold  

And all these things were wonderful and great; 

But now I have grown nothing, knowing all. 

Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow 

Lay hidden in the small slatecoloured thing! 

Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea

A MAN came slowly from the setting sun, 

To Emer, raddling raiment in her dun, 

And said, "I am that swineherd whom you bid 

Go watch the road between the wood and tide, 

But now I have no need to watch it more.' 

Then Emer cast the web upon the floor, 

And raising arms all raddled with the dye, 

Parted her lips with a loud sudden cry. 

That swineherd stared upon her face and said, 

"No man alive, no man among the dead, 

Has won the gold his cars of battle bring.' 

"But if your master comes home triumphing 

Why must you blench and shake from foot to crown?' 


The Rose

Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea 3



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Page No 6


Thereon he shook the more and cast him down 

Upon the webheaped floor, and cried his word: 

"With him is one sweetthroated like a bird.' 

"You dare me to my face,' and thereupon 

She smote with raddled fist, and where her son 

Herded the cattle came with stumbling feet, 

And cried with angry voice, "It is not meet 

To ide life away, a common herd.' 

"I have long waited, mother, for that word: 

But wherefore now?' 

                                      "There is a man to die; 

You have the heaviest arm under the sky.' 

"Whether under its daylight or its stars 

My father stands amid his battlecars.' 

"But you have grown to be the taller man.' 

"Yet somewhere under starlight or the sun 

My father stands.' 

                                      "Aged, worn out with wars 

On foot. on horseback or in battlecars.' 

"I only ask what way my journey lies, 

For He who made you bitter made you wise.' 

"The Red Branch camp in a great company 

Between wood's rim and the horses of the sea. 

Go there, and light a campfire at wood's rim; 

But tell your name and lineage to him 

Whose blade compels, and wait till they have found 

Some feasting man that the same oath has bound.' 

Among those feasting men Cuchulain dwelt, 

And his young sweetheart close beside him knelt, 

Stared on the mournful wonder of his eyes, 

Even as Spring upon the ancient skies, 

And pondered on the glory of his days; 

And all around the harpstring told his praise, 

And Conchubar, the Red Branch king of kings, 

With his own fingers touched the brazen strings. 

At last Cuchulain spake, "Some man has made 

His evening fire amid the leafy shade. 

I have often heard him singing to and fro, 

I have often heard the sweet sound of his bow. 

Seek out what man he is.' 

                                      One went and came. 


The Rose

Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea 4



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Page No 7


"He bade me let all know he gives his name 

At the swordpoint, and waits till we have found 

Some feasting man that the same oath has bound.' 

Cuchulain cried, "I am the only man 

Of all this host so bound from childhood on. 

After short fighting in the leafy shade, 

He spake to the young man, 'Is there no maid 

Who loves you, no white arms to wrap you round, 

Or do you long for the dim sleepy ground, 

That you have come and dared me to my face?" 

"The dooms of men are in God's hidden place,' 

"Your head a while seemed like a woman's head 

That I loved once.' 

                                      Again the fighting sped, 

But now the warrage in Cuchulain woke, 

And through that new blade's guard the old blade broke, 

And pierced him. 

"Speak before your breath is done.' 

"Cuchulain I, mighty Cuchulain's son.' 

"I put you from your pain. I can no more.' 

While day its burden on to evening bore, 

With head bowed on his knees Cuchulain stayed; 

Then Conchubar sent that sweetthroated maid, 

And she, to win him, his grey hair caressed; 

In vain her arms, in vain her soft white breast. 

Then Conchubar, the subtlest of all men, 

Ranking his Druids round him ten by ten, 

Spake thus: "Cuchulain will dwell there and brood 

For three days more in dreadful quietude, 

And then arise, and raving slay us all. 

Chaunt in his ear delusions magical, 

That he may fight the horses of the sea.' 

The Druids took them to their mystery, 

And chaunted for three days. 

                                      Cuchulain stirred, 

Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard 

The cars of battle and his own name cried; 

And fought with the invulnerable tide. 


The Rose

Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea 5



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Page No 8


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 doorpost 

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, 


The Rose

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Page No 9


A peace of Heaven with Hell. 

The Rose Of Battle

ROSE of all Roses, Rose of all the World! 

The tall thoughtwoven 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, spraydabbled 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 cleanswept 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 passed 

To smile on the pale dawn; and gather you 

Who have sougft 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 grey 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 grey sea. 

Our long ships loose thoughtwoven 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. 


The Rose

The Rose Of Battle 7



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Page No 10


A Faery Song

Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania, 

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 dewdropping 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 beanrows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, 

And live alone in the beeloud glade. 

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 

Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings; 

There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, 


The Rose

A Faery Song 8



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Page No 11


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 grey, 

I hear it in the deep heart's core. 

A Cradle Song

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 Sailing Seven 

Are gay with His mood. 

I sigh that kiss you, 

For I must own 

That 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 mousegrey waters are flowing, 

Threaten the head that I love. 


The Rose

A Cradle Song 9



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Page No 12


The Sorrow Of Love

THE brawling of a sparrow in the eaves, 

The brilliant moon and all the milky sky, 

And all that famous harmony of leaves, 

Had blotted out man's image and his cry. 

A girl arose that had red mournful lips 

And seemed the greatness of the world in tears, 

Doomed like Odysseus and the labouring ships 

And proud as Priam murdered with his peers; 

Arose, and on the instant clamorous eaves, 

A climbing moon upon an empty sky, 

And all that lamentation of the leaves, 

Could but compose man's image and his cry. 

When You Are Old

WHEN you are old and grey 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 with 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 Rose

The Sorrow Of Love 10



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Page No 13


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, dewdabbled, 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. 


The Rose

The White Birds 11



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Page No 14


The Countess Cathleen In Paradise

ALL the heavy days are over; 

Leave the body's coloured pride 

Underneath the grass and clover, 

With the feet laid side by side. 

Bathed in flaming founts of duty 

She'll not ask a haughty dress; 

Carry all that mournful beauty 

To the scented oaken press. 

Did the kiss of Mother Mary 

Put that music in her face? 

Yet she goes with footstep wary, 

Full of earth's old timid grace. 

'Mong the feet of angels seven 

What a dancer glimmering! 

All the heavens bow down to Heaven, 

Flame to flame and wing to 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 fear 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 Rose

The Countess Cathleen In Paradise 12



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Page No 15


The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland

HE stood among a crowd at Dromahair; 

His heart hung all upon a silken dress, 

And he had known at last some tenderness, 

Before earth took him to her stony care; 

But when a man poured fish into a pile, 

It Seemed they raised their little silver heads, 

And sang what gold morning or evening sheds 

Upon a woven worldforgotten isle 

Where people love beside the ravelled seas; 

That Time can never mar a lover's vows 

Under that woven changeless roof of boughs: 

The singing shook him out of his new ease. 

He wandered by the sands of Lissadell; 

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 lugworm with its grey and muddy mouth 

Sang that somewhere to north or west or south 

There dwelt a gay, exulting, gentle race 

Under the golden or the silver skies; 

That if a dancer stayed his hungry foot 

It seemed the sun and moon were in the fruit: 

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, 

When earthy night had drunk his body in; 

But one small knotgrass growing by the pool 

Sang where  unnecessary cruel voice  

Old silence bids its chosen race rejoice, 

Whatever ravelled waters rise and fall 

Or stormy silver fret the gold of day, 

And midnight there enfold them like a fleece 

And lover there by lover be at 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 vapourturbaned steep, 

Now that the earth had taken man and all: 


The Rose

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Page No 16


Did not the worms that spired about his bones 

proclaim with that unwearied, reedy cry 

That God has laid His fingers on the sky, 

That from those fingers glittering summer runs 

Upon the dancer by the dreamless wave. 

Why should those lovers that no lovers miss 

Dream, until God burn 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 this tragic 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: 

And all grew friendly for a little while. 

Ah, Exiles wandering over lands and seas, 

And planning, plotting always that some morrow 

May set a stone upon ancestral Sorrow! 

I also bear a bellbranch full of ease. 

I tore it from green boughs winds tore and tossed 

Until the sap of summer had grown weary! 

I tore it from the barren boughs of Eire, 

That country where a man can be so crossed; 

Can be so battered, badgered and destroyed 

That he's a loveless man: gay bells bring laughter 

That shakes a mouldering cobweb from the rafter; 

And yet the saddest chimes are best enjoyed. 

Gay bells or sad, they bring you memories 

Of halfforgotten innocent old places: 

We and our bitterness have left no traces 

On Munster grass and Connemara skies. 


The Rose

The Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish  Novelists  14



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Page No 17


The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner

ALTHOUGH I shelter from the rain 

Under a broken tree, 

My chair was nearest to the fire 

In every company 

That talked of love or politics, 

Ere Time transfigured me. 

Though lads are making pikes again 

For some conspiracy, 

And crazy rascals rage their fill 

At human tyranny, 

My contemplations are of Time 

That has transfigured me. 

There's not a woman turns her face 

Upon a broken tree, 

And yet the beauties that I loved 

Are in my memory; 

I spit into the face of Time 

That has transfigured 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 mothhour 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!' 


The Rose

The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner 15



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Page No 18


He knelt, and leaning on the chair 

He prayed and fell asleep; 

And the mothhour 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 sparrowchirp 

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 Rose

The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner 16



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Page No 19


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 metry 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 the Joves a circle go, 

The flaming circle of our days, 

Gyring, spiring to and fro 

In those great ignorant leafy ways; 

Remembering all that shaken hair 

And how the winged sandals 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 

That the stormy night receives, 

Roots half hidden under snows, 

Broken boughs and blackened leaves. 

For ill 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; 

Flying, crying, to and fro, 

Cruel claw and hungry throat, 

Or else they stand and sniff the wind, 

And shake their ragged wings; alas! 

Thy tender eyes grow all unkind: 

Gaze no more in the bitter glass. 


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The Two Trees 17



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Page No 20


To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire

WHILE I wrought out these fitful Danaan rhymes, 

My heart would brim with dreams about the times 

When we bent down above the fading coals 

And talked of the dark folk who live in souls 

Of passionate men, like bats in the dead trees; 

And of the wayward twilight companies 

Who sigh with mingled sorrow and content, 

Because their blossoming dreams have never bent 

Under the fruit of evil and of good: 

And of the embattled flaming multitude 

Who rise, wing above wing, flame above flame, 

And, like a storm, cry the Ineffable Name, 

And with the clashing of their swordblades make 

A rapturous music, till the morning break 

And the white hush end all but the loud beat 

Of their long wings, the flash of their white feet. 

To Ireland In The Coming Times

Know, that I would accounted be 

True brother of a company 

That sang, to sweeten Ireland's wrong, 

Ballad and story, rann and song; 

Nor be I any less of them, 

Because the redrosebordered hem 

Of her, whose history began 

Before God made the angelic clan, 

Trails all about the written page. 

When Time began to rant and rage 

The measure of her flying feet 

Made Ireland's heart hegin to beat; 

And Time bade all his candles flare 

To light a measure here and there; 

And may the thoughts of Ireland brood 

Upon a measured guietude. 

Nor may I less be counted one 

With Davis, Mangan, Ferguson, 

Because, to him who ponders well, 


The Rose

To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire 18



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Page No 21


My rhymes more than their rhyming tell 

Of things discovered in the deep, 

Where only body's laid asleep. 

For the elemental creatures go 

About my table to and fro, 

That hurry from unmeasured mind 

To rant and rage in flood and wind, 

Yet he who treads in measured ways 

May surely barter gaze for gaze. 

Man ever journeys on with them 

After the redrosebordered hem. 

Ah, faerics, 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, 

What measurer Time has lit above, 

And all benighted 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 footfall. 

I cast my heart into my rhymes, 

That you, in the dim coming times, 

May know how my heart went with them 

After the redrosebordered hem. 


The Rose

To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire 19



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Bookmarks



1. Table of Contents, page = 3

2. The Rose, page = 4

   3. William Butler Yeats, page = 4

   4. To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time, page = 4

   5. Fergus And The Druid, page = 5

   6. Cuchulan's Fight With The Sea, page = 6

   7. The Rose Of The World, page = 9

   8. The Rose Of Peace, page = 9

   9. The Rose Of Battle, page = 10

   10. A Faery Song, page = 11

   11. The Lake Isle Of Innisfree, page = 11

   12. A Cradle Song, page = 12

   13. The Pity Of Love, page = 12

   14. The Sorrow Of Love, page = 13

   15. When You Are Old, page = 13

   16. The White Birds, page = 14

   17. A Dream Of Death, page = 14

   18. The Countess Cathleen In Paradise, page = 15

   19. Who Goes With Fergus?, page = 15

   20. The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland, page = 16

   21. The Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish  Novelists , page = 17

   22. The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner, page = 18

   23. The Ballad Of Father Gilligan, page = 18

   24. The Two Trees, page = 20

   25. To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire, page = 21

   26. To Ireland In The Coming Times, page = 21