Poetry

Sad Shepherd

Lines Written in Dejection

The Dawn

On Woman

The Fisherman

The Hawk

Memory

Her Praise

The People

His Phoenix

A Thought from Propertius

Broken Dreams

A Deep-Sworn Vow

Presences

The Balloon of the Mind

To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-gno

On Being Asked for a War Poem

In Memory of Alfred Pollexfen

Upon a Dying Lady

1. I: Her Courtesy
2. II: Certain Artists Bring Her Dolls and Drawings
3. III: She Turns the Dolls’ Faces to the Wall
4. IV: The End of Day
5. V: Her Race
6. VI: Her Courage
7. VII: Her Friends Bring Her a Christmas Tree

Ego Dominus Tuus

A Prayer on Going Into My House

The Phases of the Moon

The Cat and the Moon

The Saint and the Hunchback

Two Songs of a Fool

1. I
2. II

Another Song of a Fool

The Double Vision of Michael Robartes

1. I
2. II
3. III

Michael Robartes and the Dancer

1. Preface to Michael Robartes and the Dancer
2. Michael Robartes and the Dancer
3. Solomon and the Witch
4. An Image from a Past Life
5. Under Saturn
6. Easter, 1916
7. Sixteen Dead Men
8. The Rose Tree
9. On a Political Prisoner
10. The Leaders of the Crowd
11. Towards Break of Day
12. Demon and Beast
13. The Second Coming
14. A Prayer for My Daughter
15. A Meditation in Time of War
16. To Be Carved on a Stone at Ballylee

The Tower

1. Sailing to Byzantium
   1. I
   2. II
   3. III
   4. IV
2. The Tower
   1. I
   2. II
   3. III
3. Meditations in Time of Civil War
   1. I: Ancestral Houses
   2. II: My House
   3. III: My Table
   4. IV: My Descendants
   5. V: The Road at My Door
   6. VI: The Stare’s Nest by My Window
   7. VII: I See Phantoms of Hatred and of the Heart’s Fullness and of the Coming Emptiness
4. Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen
   1. I
   2. II
   3. III
   4. IV
   5. V
   6. VI
5. The Wheel
6. Youth and Age
7. The New Faces
8. A Prayer for My Son
9. Wisdom
10. Leda and the Swan
11. On a Picture of a Black Centaur
12. Among School Children
    1. I
    2. II
    3. III
    4. IV
    5. V
    6. VI
    7. VII
    8. VIII
13. Colonus’ Praise
14. The Hero, the Girl and the Fool
15. Owen Ahern and His Dancers
    1. I
    2. II
16. A Man Young and Old
    1. First Love
    2. Human Dignity
    3. The Mermaid
    4. The Death of the Hare
    5. The Empty Cup
    6. His Memories
    7. The Friends of His Youth
    8. Summer and Spring
    9. The Secrets of the Old
    10. His Wildness
17. The Three Monuments
18. From Oedipus at Colonus
    1. I
    2. II
    3. III
    4. IV
19. The Gift of Harun-al-Rashid
20. All Souls’ Night

Endnotes

Colophon

Uncopyright

Imprint

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Song of the Faeries

A man has a hope for heaven,
But soulless a faery dies,
As a leaf that is old, and withered and cold
When the wint’ry vapours rise.

Soon shall our wings be stilled,
And our laughter over and done,
So let us dance where the yellow lance
Of the barley shoots in the sun.

So let us dance on the fringed waves,
And shout at the wisest owls
In their downy caps, and startle the naps
Of the dreaming water-fowls.

And fight for the black sloe-berries,
For soulless a faery dies,
As a leaf that is old, and withered and cold
When the wintry vapours rise.

Love and Death

Behold the flashing waters,
A cloven, dancing jet,
That from the milk-white marble
For ever foam and fret;
Far off in drowsy valleys
Where the meadow-saffrons blow,
The feet of summer dabble
In their coiling calm and slow.
The banks are worn for ever
By a people sadly gay:
A Titan, with loud laughter,
Made them of fire and clay.
Go ask the springing flowers,
And the flowing air above,
What are the twin-born waters,
And they’ll answer Death and Love.

With wreaths of withered flowers
Two lonely spirits wait,
With wreaths of withered flowers,
’Fore paradise’s gate.
They may not pass the portal,
Poor earth-enkindled pair,
Though sad is many a spirit
Το pass and leave them there
Still staring at their flowers,
That dull and faded are.
If one should rise beside thee,
The other is not far.
Go ask the youngest angel,
She will say with bated breath,
By the door of Mary’s garden
Are the spirits Love and Death.

The Seeker

A Dramatic Poem in Two Scenes

Scene I

A woodland valley at evening. Around a wood-fire sit three shepherds; without a curve rises the smoke.

First Shepherd	Heavy with wool the sheep are gathered in, And through the mansion of the spirit rove My dreams o’er thoughts of plenty as the red- Eyed panthers in their desert caverns rove And rove unceasing round their dreadful brood.
Second Shepherd	O brother, lay thy flute upon thy lips, It is the voice of all our hearts that laugh.
	The first