Sang old Tom the lunatic

Where one found Lancelot crazed and hid him for a while;Nor Uladh, 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’sSeven old sisters wind the threads of the long-lived ones,Land-of-the-Tower, where Aengus has thrown the…

Underneath the grass and clover,With the feet laid side by side.Bathed in flaming founts of dutyShe’ll not ask a haughty dress;Carry all that mournful beautyTo the scented oaken press.Did the kiss of Mother MaryPut that music in her face?Yet she goes with footstep wary,Full of earth’s old timid grace.‘Mong the feet of angels sevenWhat a…

A man awaits his endDreading and hoping all;Many times he died,Many times rose again.A great man in his prideConfronting murderous menCasts derision uponSupersession of breath;He knows death to the bone —Man has created death.

Two girls in silk kimonos, bothBeautiful, one a gazelle.But a raving autumn shearsBlossom from the summer’s wreath;The older is condemned to death,Pardoned, drags out lonely yearsConspiring among the ignorant.I know not what the younger dreams –Some vague Utopia – and she seems,When withered old and skeleton-gaunt,An image of such politics.Many a time I think to…

Goatherd. Nor bird nor beastCould make me wish for anything this day,Being old, but that the old alone might die,And that would be against God’s providence.Let the young wish. But what has brought you here?Never until this moment have we metWhere my goats browse on the scarce grass or leapFrom stone to Stone.Shepherd. I am…

Madge tells me what I dared not thinkWhen my blood was strong,And what had drowned a lover onceSounds like an old song.Though Margery is stricken dumbIf thrown in Madge’s way,We three make up a solitude;For none alive to-dayCan know the stories that we knowOr say the things we say:How such a man pleased women mostOf…