William Yeats - Poems

MARY

What can have made the grey hen flutter so?

(TEIG, a boy of fourteen, is coming in with turf, which he lays beside the hearth .)

TEIG

They say that now the land is famine struck

The graves are walking.

MARY

There is something that the hen hears.

TEIG

And that is not the worst; at Tubber-vanach

A woman met a man with ears spread out,

And they moved up and down like a bat's wing.

MARY

What can have kept your father all this while?

TEIG

Two nights ago, at Carrick-orus churchyard,

A herdsman met a man who had no mouth,

Nor eyes, nor ears; his face a wall of flesh;

He saw him plainly by the light of the moon.

MARY

Look out, and tell me if your father's coming.

(TEIG goes to door .)

TEIG

Mother!

MARY

What is it?

TEIG

In the bush beyond,

There are two birds—if you can call them birds—

I could not see them rightly for the leaves.

But they've the shape and colour of horned owls

And I'm half certain they've a human face.

MARY

Mother of God, defend us!

TEIG

They're looking at me.

What is the good of praying? father says.

God and the Mother of God have dropped asleep.

What do they care, he says, though the whole land

Squeal like a rabbit under a weasel's tooth?

MARY

You'll bring misfortune with your blasphemies

Upon your father, or yourself, or me.

I would to God he were home—ah, there he is.

(SHEMUS comes in .)

What was it kept you in the wood? You know

I cannot get all sorts of accidents

Out of my mind till you are home again.

SHEMUS

I'm in no mood to listen to your clatter.

Although I tramped the woods for half a day,

I've taken nothing, for the very rats,

Badgers, and hedgehogs seem to have died of drought,

And there was scarce a wind in the parched leaves.

TEIG

Then you have brought no dinner.

SHEMUS

After that

I sat among the beggars at the cross-roads,

And held a hollow hand among the others.

MARY

What, did you beg?

SHEMUS

I had no chance to beg,

For when the beggars saw me they cried out

They would not have another share their alms,

And hunted me away with sticks and stones.

TEIG

You said that you would bring us food or money.

SHEMUS

What's in the house?

TEIG

A bit of mouldy bread.

MARY

There's flour enough to make another loaf.

TEIG

And when that's gone?

MARY

There is the hen in the coop.

SHEMUS

My curse upon the beggars, my curse upon them!

TEIG

And the last penny gone.

SHEMUS

When the hen's gone,

What can we do but live on sorrel and dock,

And dandelion, till our mouths are green?

MARY

God, that to this hour's found bit and sup,

Will cater for us still.

SHEMUS

His kitchen's bare.

There were five doors that I looked through this day

And saw the dead and not a soul to wake them.

MARY

Maybe He'd have us die because He knows,

When the ear is stopped and when the eye is stopped,

That every wicked sight is hid from the eye,

And all fool talk from the ear.

SHEMUS

Who's passing there?

And mocking us with music?

( A stringed instrument without. )

TEIG

A young man plays it,

There's an old woman and a lady with him.

SHEMUS

What is the trouble of the poor to her?

Nothing at all or a harsh radishy sauce

For the day's meat.

MARY

God's pity on the rich.

Had we been through as many doors, and seen

The dishes standing on the polished wood

In the wax candle light, we'd be as hard,

And there's the needle's eye at the end of all.

SHEMUS

My curse upon the rich.

TEIG

They're coming here.

SHEMUS

Then down upon that stool, down quick, I say,

And call up a whey face and a whining voice,

And let your head be bowed upon your knees.

MARY

Had I but time to put the place to rights.

(CATHLEEN, OONA, and ALEEL enter .)

CATHLEEN

God save all here. There is a certain house,

An old grey castle with a kitchen garden,

A cider orchard and a plot for flowers,

Somewhere among these woods.

MARY

We know it, lady.

A place that's set among impassable walls

As though world's trouble could not find it out.

CATHLEEN

It may be that we are that trouble, for we—

Although we've wandered in the wood this hour—

Have lost it too, yet I should know my way,

For I lived all my childhood in that house.

MARY

Then you are Countess Cathleen?

CATHLEEN

And this woman,

Oona, my nurse, should have remembered it,

For we were happy for a long time there.

OONA

The paths are overgrown with thickets now,

Or else some change has come upon my sight.

CATHLEEN

And this young man, that should have known the woods—

Because we met him on their border but now,

Wandering and singing like a wave of the sea—

Is so wrapped up in dreams of terrors to come

That he can give no help.

MARY

You have still some way,

But I can put you on the trodden path

Your servants take when they are marketing.

But first sit down and rest yourself awhile,

For my old fathers served your fathers, lady,

Longer than books can tell—and it were strange

If you and yours should not be welcome here.

CATHLEEN

And it were stranger still were I ungrateful

For such kind welcome—but I must be gone,

For the night's gathering in.

SHEMUS

It is a long while

Since I've set eyes on bread or on what buys it.

CATHLEEN

So you are starving even in this wood,

Where I had thought I would find nothing changed.

But that's a dream, for the old worm o' the world

Can eat its way into what place it pleases.

( She gives money. )

TEIG

Beautiful lady, give me something too;

I fell but now, being weak with hunger and thirst

And lay upon the threshold like a log.

CATHLEEN

I gave for all and that was all I had.

Look, my purse is empty. I have passed

By starving men and women all this day,

And they have had the rest; but take the purse,

The silver clasps on't may be worth a trifle.

But if you'll come to-morrow to my house

You shall have twice the sum.

(ALEEL begins to play .)

SHEMUS ( muttering )

What, music, music!

CATHLEEN

Ah, do not blame the finger on the string;

The doctors bid me fly the unlucky times

And find distraction for my thoughts, or else

Pine to my grave.

SHEMUS

I have said nothing, lady.

Why should the like of us complain?

OONA

Have done.

Sorrows that she's but read of in a book

Weigh on her mind as if they had been her own.

(OONA, MARY, and CATHLEEN go out . ALEEL looks defiantly at SHEMUS.)

ALEEL ( singing )

Were I but crazy for love's sake

I know who'd measure out his length,

I know the heads that I should break,

For crazy men have double strength.

There! all's out now to leave or take,

And who mocks music mocks at love;

And when I'm crazy for love's sake

I'll not go far to choose.

( Snapping his fingers in SHEMUS' face .)

Enough!

I know the heads that I shall break.

( He takes a step towards the door and then turns again. )

Shut to the door before the night has fallen,