In The Seven Woods Part 1

In The Seven Woods.

by William Butler (W.B.) Yeats.

IN THE SEVEN WOODS.

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, Fas.h.i.+oned 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 s.h.i.+elds 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, 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 G.o.d 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, 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 gra.s.s 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, wis.h.i.+ng 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, 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 gra.s.s-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 "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 pa.s.sed 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 G.o.ds long ago decreed No waiting maid should ever spread Baile and Aillinn's marriage bed, 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 G.o.d 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 gra.s.s.

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.