^^Si^iffl^'^5ii!ij 
 
i 
 
THE SHADOWY WATERS 
 
THE SHADOWY WATERS 
 
 BY W. B. YEATS 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 ^ Of THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY ] 
 
 or y 
 
 LONDON: HODDER AND 
 
 STOUGHTON 
 
 27 PATERNOSTER ROW : MCMI 
 
/ 
 
 \ 
 
 Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
 

 TO LADY GREGORY 
 
or TM 
 
 UNIVERSl . 
 
 Of - y 
 
 / walked among the seven woods of Coole^ 
 Shan-walla^ where a willow-bordered pond 
 Gathers the wild duck from the winter dawn ; 
 Shady Kyle-dortha ; sunnier Kyle-na-gno 
 Where many hundred squirrels are as happy 
 As though they had been hidden by green boughs 
 Where old age cannot find them ; Pairc-na-lea, 
 Where hazel and ash and privet blind the paths ; 
 Dim Pairc-na-carraig, where the wild bees fling 
 'Their sudden fragrances on the green air ; 
 Dim Pairc-na-tarav^ where enchanted eyes 
 Have seen immortal^ mild^ proud shadows walk ; 
 Dim Inchy wood, that hides badger and fox 
 And martin-cat, and borders that old wood 
 Wise Biddy Early called the wicked wood : 
 Seven odours, seven murmurs, seven woods. 
 7 
 
/ had not eyes like those enchanted eyes, 
 Tet dreamed that beings happier than men 
 Moved round me in the shadows, and at night 
 My dreams were cloven by voices and by fires ; 
 And the images I have woven in this story 
 Of Forgael and Dectora and the empty waters 
 Moved round me in the voices and the fires ; 
 And more I may not write of, for them that cleave 
 'The waters of sleep can make a chattering tongue 
 Heavy like stone, their wisdom being half silence. 
 
 How shall I name you, immortal, mild, proud 
 
 shadows ? 
 I only know that all we know comes from you. 
 And that you come from Eden on fiyingfeet. 
 Is Eden far away, or do you hide 
 From human thought, as hares and mice and coneys 
 That run before the reaping-hook and lie 
 8 
 
In the last ridge of the barley ? Bo our woods 
 And winds and -ponds cover more quiet woods ^ 
 More shining winds ^ more star-glimmering ponds ? 
 
 Is Eden out of time and out of space ? 
 And do you gather about us when pale light 
 Shining on water and fallen among leaves^ 
 And winds blowing from flowers^ and whirr of 
 
 feathers 
 And the green quiet ^ have uplifted the heart f 
 
 I have made this poem for you^ that men may 
 
 read it 
 Before they read of Forgael and Dectora, 
 As men in the old times, before the harps began^ 
 Poured out wine for the high invisible ones. 
 
 September 1900. 
 
THE SHADOWY WATERS 
 
FORGAEL 
 AIBRIC 
 DECTORA 
 SAILORS 
 
m 7 1 
 
 THE deck of a galley. The steeritig-oar, which comes through 
 the bulwark, is to the left hand. One looks along the deck 
 toward the high forecastle, which is partly bidden by a great 
 square sail. The sail is drawn in toward the stern at the left 
 side, and is high enough above the deck at the right side to 
 (how a little of the deck beyond and of the forecastle. Three 
 . / rows of hounds, the first dark, the second red, and the third 
 white with red ears, make a conventional pattern upon the sail. 
 The sea is hidden in mist, ana there is no light except where 
 the moon makes a brightness in the mist, 
 
 FoRGAEL is sleeping upon skins a few yards forward of the 
 steering-oar. He has a silver lily embroidered over his breast. 
 A small harp lies beside him. Aibric and two sailors stand 
 about the steering-oar. One of the sailors is steering. 
 
 THE HELMSMAN 
 
 His face has never gladdened since he came 
 Out of that island where the fool of the wood 
 Played on his harp. 
 
 13 
 
THE OTHER SAILOR 
 
 And I would be as sad 
 But that the wind changed ; for I followed him 
 And heard the music in the wind, and saw 
 ^ A red hound running from a silver arrow. 
 I drew my sword to fling it in a pool, — 
 I have forgotten wherefore. 
 
 THE HELMSMAN 
 
 The red hound 
 Was Forgael's courage that the music killed. 
 
 THE OTHER SAILOR 
 
 H^w many moons have died from the full moon 
 When something that was bearded like a goat 
 Walked on the waters and bid Forgael seek 
 His heart's desire where the world dwindles out ? 
 
 H 
 
THE HELMSMAN 
 
 Nine moons. 
 
 THE OTHER SAILOR 
 
 And from the harping of the fool ? 
 
 THE HELMSMAN 
 
 Three moons. 
 
 THE OTHER SAILOR 
 
 It were best to kill him, and choose out 
 Another leader, and turn home again. 
 
 THE HELMSMAN 
 
 I had killed him long ago, but that the fool 
 Gave him his harp. 
 
 THE OTHER SAILOR 
 
 Now that he is asleep, 
 15 
 
He cannot wake the god that hides in it. 
 
 {The two sailors go nearer to Forgael and 
 half draw their swords.) 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 And whom will you make leader ? Who will make 
 
 A path among these waves and weigh the wind ? 
 
 Not I, nor Maine there, nor Duach's son. 
 
 Be patient yet a while ; for this ninth moon, 
 
 Being the moon of birth, may end our doubt, 
 
 (Forgael rises. The two sailors hurry past 
 him^ and disappear beyond the sail. Forgae l 
 takes the steering-oar^ 
 
 forgael 
 
 So these would have killed Forgael while asleep 
 Because a god has made him wise with dreams ; 
 And you, my Aibric, who have been a King 
 And spoken in the Council, and heard tales 
 
 i6 
 
That druids write on yew and apple wood, 
 Are doubtful like these pullers of the oar ! 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 I doubt your wisdom, but do not doubt my love. 
 
 Had I not gold and silver, and enough 
 
 Of pasture-land and plough-land among the hills ? 
 
 And when you came, the North under your sails, 
 
 And praised your war among the endless seas, 
 
 Did I not follow with a score of ships ? 
 
 And now they are all gone, I follow still. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 But would turn home again. 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 No man had doubts 
 When we rowed north, singing above the oars, 
 c 17 
 
And harried Alban towns, and overthrew 
 The women-slingers on the Narrow Bridge, 
 And passed the Outer Hebrides, and took 
 Armlets of gold or shields with golden nails 
 From hilly Lochlann ; but our sail has passed 
 Even the wandering islands of the gods. 
 And hears the roar of the streams where, druids say, 
 Time and the world and all things dwindle out. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Do you remember, Aibric, how you bore 
 A captive woman from the Narrow Bridge, 
 And, though you loved her, gave her up to me ? 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 I thought she loved you, and I thought her love 
 Would overcome your sorrow and your dreams. 
 But you grew weary of her. 
 
 i8 
 
FORGAEL 
 
 When I hold 
 A woman in my arms, she sinks away 
 As though the waters had flowed up between ; 
 And yet, there is a love that the gods give, 
 When Aengus and his Edaine wake from sleep 
 And gaze on one another through our eyes, 
 And turn brief longing and deceiving hope 
 And bodily tenderness to the soft fire ^i 
 That shall burn time when times have ebbed away. 
 The fool foretold me I would find this love 
 Among those streams, or on their cloudy edge. 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 No man nor woman has loved otherwise 
 Than in brief longing and deceiving hope 
 And bodily tenderness ; and he who longs 
 
 19 
 
For happier love but finds unhappiness. 
 And falls among the dreams the drowsy gods 
 Breathe on the burnished mirror of the world 
 And then smooth out with ivory hands and sigh. 
 Forgael, seek out content, where other men 
 Have found delight, in the resounding oars, 
 In day out-living battle, on the breast 
 Of some mild woman, or in children's ways. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The fool that came out of the wintry wood 
 Taught me wise music, and gave me this old harp ; 
 And were all dreams, it would not weigh in the 
 hand. 
 
 AIBRIC - 
 
 It was a fool that gave it, and may be 
 Out of mere wantonness to lure a sail 
 Among the waters that no pilot knows. 
 
 20 
 
FORGAEL 
 
 I have good pilots, Aibric. When men die 
 They are changed and as grey birds fly out to 
 
 sea, 
 And I have heard them call from wind to wind 
 How all that die are borne about the world 
 In the cold streams, and wake to their desire. 
 It may be, before the winds of birth have waked ; 
 Upon clear nights they leave the upper air 
 And fly among the foam. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 {Running from the forecastle) 
 
 Thrust down the helm. 
 For I have seen a ship hid in the fog. 
 Look ! there she lies under a flapping sail. 
 
 21 
 
FORGAEL 
 (jTo AlBRIc) 
 
 Give me the helm : call hither those who lie 
 
 Upon the rowers' benches underneath, 
 
 And bid them hide in shadow of the sail, 
 
 Or crowd behind the bulwark, that we seem 
 
 A trading galley in her helmsman's eyes. 
 
 (AiBRic goes toward the forecastle.) 
 
 It may be now that I can go my way 
 
 And no man kill me ; for some wind has blown 
 
 A galley from the Lochlann seas ; her flag 
 
 Is folding and unfolding, and in its folds 
 
 Her raven flutters. Rob him of his food 
 
 Or be his food, I follow the grey wings. 
 
 And need no more of life till the white wings 
 
 Of Aengus' birds gleam in their apple boughs. 
 
 (jTwo sailors come creeping along the right 
 bulwark.) 
 
 22 
 
THE FOREMOST OF THE TWO SAILORS 
 
 It were better to pass by, because the gods 
 Make galleys out of wind that change to wind 
 When one has leapt on board. 
 
 THE HINDERMOST OF THE TWO SAILORS 
 
 No, for I have hope 
 Forgael may find his heart's desire on board 
 And turn his galley about and bring me home. 
 
 (T'wo more sailors come creeping along the right 
 bulwark.) 
 
 THE FOREMOST OF THE TWO SAILORS 
 
 I swore but yesterday if the Red God 
 Would end this peaceful life that rots the bones, 
 None should escape my sword : I would send all 
 To mind his cows and swine by the Red Lake. 
 
 23 
 
THE HINDERMOST OF THE TWO SAILORS 
 
 He has heard me and not you. Nine days ago 
 I promised him that none should escape my sword 
 But women and jugglers and players on the harp. 
 
 THE FOREMOST OF THE TWO SAILORS 
 
 He has heard me because I promised all. 
 
 (jThere are sailors now along the whole bulwark 
 and sailors in the shadow of the sail.) 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Bend lower lest your battle-axes glimmer. 
 The tide narrows between, and one old man 
 Nods by the helm, and nearer to the sail 
 A woman lies among embroideries. 
 Near by, but in the shadow of the sail, 
 A boy and girl hold one another's hands ; 
 Their hair mingles on some stringed instrument. 
 And a string murmurs as though Time were dead 
 
 24 
 
Or a god hid them under the shadow of whigs. 
 Beyond the sail a man with a red crown 
 Leans on his elbows, gazing at the sea. 
 
 When you are aboard the Lochlann galley, lash 
 Bulwark to bulwark, and square her sail by ours. 
 Now rush upon her and find out what prey 
 Best pleases you. 
 
 {^he sailors climb over the bulwarks beyond the 
 sail. FoRGAEL is left alone.) 
 
 A VOICE ON THE OTHER SHIP 
 
 Armed men have come upon us. 
 
 ANOTHER VOICE 
 
 Wake all below. 
 
 A MORE DISTANT VOICE 
 
 Why have you broken our sleep ? 
 
 D 25 
 
THE FIRST VOICE 
 
 Armed men have come upon us. O ! I am slain ! 
 {There is a sound of fighting.) 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 A grey bird has flown by. He has flown upward. 
 He hovers above the mast and waits his kind ; 
 When all gather they will fly upon their way. 
 I shall find out if I have lost my way 
 Among these misty waters. Two ! Now four ! 
 Now four together ! I shall hear their words 
 If I go nearer to the windward side, 
 For there are sudden voices in my ears. 
 
 {He goes to the right bulwark.) 
 
 Two hover there together, and one says, 
 ' How light we are now we are changed to birds ! * 
 And the other answers, ' Maybe we shall find 
 
 26 
 
Our hearts* desire now that we are so lighter' 
 
 And then one asks another how he died, 
 
 And says, * A sword-blade pierced me in my sleep.' 
 
 And now they all wheel suddenly and fly 
 
 To the other side and higher in the air. 
 
 {He crosses over to the other bulwark.) 
 They are still waiting ; and now the laggard comes, 
 And she cries out, ' I have fled to my beloved 
 In the waste air. I will wander by his side 
 Among the windy meadows of the dawn.' 
 They have flown away together. We are nearly 
 A quarter of the heavens from our right way. 
 
 {He goes to the steering-oar. Two sailors come 
 from the other ship dragging a long rope^ 
 which they fasten to the mast.) 
 
 ONE OF THE SAILORS 
 
 But will it hold while we are emptying her ? 
 
 27 
 
THE OTHER SAILOR 
 
 While the wind is light. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The oar can hardly move her. 
 And I must lose more time because these fools 
 Believe that gold and women taken in war 
 Are better than the woods where no love fades 
 From its first sighs and laughter, before the sleep, 
 Whose shadow is the sleep that comes with love. 
 Ends all things. 
 
 (^More sailors have come from the other ship. 
 One of them carries a crown of gold and of 
 rubies. One of them leads Dectora, who 
 '. has a rose embroidered over her breast.^ 
 
 AN OLD SAILOR 
 
 I have slain the Lochlann king. 
 28 
 
FORGAEL 
 
 You have done well, because my bows are turned 
 Towards a country where there are no kings. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 (^Laying the crown at Fokgael^s feet) 
 I have brought his crown. 
 
 THE OLD SAILOR 
 
 And I have brought his queen. 
 I would have spared her handmaid, but she caught 
 This blade out of my hand and died of a sudden. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 She ofFers great rewards if we turn east 
 And bring her to her kingdom and her people. 
 
 29 
 
FORGAEL 
 
 My way is west. She seems both young and 
 
 shapely ; 
 Give her to Aibric, if he will. I wait 
 For an immortal woman, as I think. 
 
 (He goes nearer to Dectora, gazing at her.) 
 
 THE OLD SAILOR 
 
 I left her living, thinking that I had found 
 
 Your heart's desire and the end of all our trouble ; 
 
 But now I will kill her. 
 
 CFoRGAEL motions him away.) 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 All comes to an end. 
 The harvest 's in ; the granary doors are shut ; 
 The topmost blossom on the boughs of Time 
 Has blossomed, and I grow as old as Time, 
 
 30 
 
For I have all his garden wisdom. 
 
 O speak ! 
 I await your words as the blind grass awaits 
 The falling blossoms, and the dead the living. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I will swear by sun and moon to pardon all 
 And to give wealth of oxen and sheep to all ; 
 And to give you besides a hundred shields, 
 A hundred swords, a hundred drinking-bowls. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 Cover your ears ; for once we had moored our 
 
 galley 
 Beside a Lochlann wharf, and though she had 
 
 sworn 
 By sun and moon and a hundred gods as well, 
 She would weave a net to take us. 
 
 31 
 
ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 She might keep faith : 
 The gods hold watch about the words of a queen. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Have the winds blown you among these empty 
 waters ? 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 She will answer now like any waiting woman 
 Because these waters make all women one. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I and that mighty king^a sudden blow 
 And evil fortune have overthrown sailed hither 
 Because I had hoped to come, as dreams foretold, 
 Where gods are brooding in a mountainous place 
 
 32 
 
That murmurs with holy woods, and win their 
 
 help 
 To conquer among the countries of the north. 
 I have found nothing but these empty waters : 
 I have turned homewards. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 In the eyes of the gods, 
 War-laden galleys, and armies on white roads, 
 And unforgotten names, and the cold stars 
 That have built all are dust on a moth's wing. 
 These are their lures, but they have set their hearts 
 On tears and laughter ; they have lured you hither 
 And lured me hither, that you might be my love. 
 Aengus looks on you when I look : he awaits 
 Till his Edaine, no longer a golden fly 
 Among the winds, looks under your pale eyelids. 
 
 E 33 
 
DECTORA 
 
 {^0 the sailors') 
 Is it your will that I, who am a queen 
 Among the queens, and chose the mightiest 
 Of the twelve kings of the world to be my king, 
 Become a stranger's leman ; and that you, 
 Who might have flocks and herds and many 
 
 thralls, 
 Be pullers of the oar until you die ? 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 She bids us follow her. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 I have grown weary 
 Of following Forgael's dream from wind to wind. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Give me a hundred sheep. 
 
 34 
 
ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Give me a house 
 Well sheltered from the winds, and fruitful fields, 
 And a strong galley. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I give you all as much. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 And will you swear never to be avenged 
 For those among your people that are dead ? 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I swear it, though I gladly would lie down 
 
 With one you have killed and die ; for when I 
 
 left 
 My foster-mother's garden in the south 
 I ceased to be a woman, being a queen. 
 
 35 
 
ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 And will you swear it by the sun and moon ? 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I swear it. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Let every man draw out his sword. 
 Gather about him, that the gods may not know 
 The hand that wounds him, because the gods are 
 his friends. 
 
 (FoRGAEL has taken the harp in his hands and 
 is leaning against the bulwark. 'The sailors 
 draw their swords., and come toward him. 
 FoRGAEL plays slowly and faintly?^ 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 A white bird beats his wings upon my face. 
 
 36 
 
l/NIVERol 
 
 or 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 A white bird has torn me with his silver claws. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 I am blind and deaf because of the white wings. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 I am afraid of the harp. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 O 1 wings on wings ! 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 He has thrown a druid dream upon the air. 
 Strike quickly ; it will fade out when you strike. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 I am afraid of his low-laughing harp. 
 (FoRGAEL changes the air.) 
 37 
 
DECTORA 
 
 {Looking over the bulwark in a half dream) 
 I shall be home now in a little while, 
 Hearing the harpers play, the pine-wood crackle, 
 The handmaids laugh and whisper in the door. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 Who said we had a skin of yellow ale ? 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 I said the ale was brown. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 {Who has gone into the other ship) 
 
 I have found the ale, 
 I had thrown it down behind this coil of rope. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Forgael can die to-morrow. Come to the ale. 
 
 38 
 
ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Come to the ale ; for he can die to-morrow. 
 {^hey go on to the other ship.) 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 (JVho lingers^ looking at Dectora) 
 
 She will say something in a little while, 
 And I shall laugh with joy. 
 
 A VOICE ON THE OTHER SHIP 
 
 Come hither, Aibric, 
 And tell me a love-story while I drink. 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 Ah, well ! they are calling me — they are calling 
 me. 
 
 {He goes forward and into the other ship.) 
 39 
 
FORGAEL 
 
 How little and reedy a sound awakes a god 
 To cry his folding cry ! 
 
 {He changes the air again; Dectora leans 
 against the bulwark as if very sleepy^ and 
 gradually sinks down on the deck.) 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 {^As if in sleep) 
 
 No, no, be silent, 
 For I am certain somebody is dead. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 She has begun forgetting. When she wakes. 
 The years that have gone over her from the hour 
 When she dreamt first of love, shall flicker out 
 And that dream only shine before her feet. 
 I grew as old as Time, and she grows young 
 
 40 
 
As the ageless birds of Aengus, or the birds 
 The white fool makes at morning out of foam ; 
 For love is a-weaving when a woman's heart 
 Grows young and a man's heart grows old in a 
 twinkling. 
 
 (He changes the air.) 
 Her eyelids tremble and the white foam fades ; 
 The stars would hurl their crowns among the foam 
 Were they but lifted up. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 {Slowly waking) 
 
 The red hound is fled. 
 Why did you say that I have followed him 
 For these nine years ? O arrow upon arrow ! 
 My eyes are troubled by the silver arrows ; 
 Ah, they have pierced his heart ! 
 {She wakes.) 
 p 41 
 
I have slept long ; 
 I fought twelve battles dressed in golden armour. 
 I have forgot it all. How soon dreams fade ! 
 I will drink out of the stream. The stream is gone : 
 Before I dropped asleep, a kingfisher 
 Shook the pale apple-blossom over it ; 
 And now the waves are crying in my ears. 
 And a cold wind is blowing in my hair. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 {^Going over to her) 
 
 A hound that had lain hid in the red rushes 
 Breathed out a druid vapour, and crumbled away 
 The grass and the blue shadow on the stream 
 And the pale blossom ; but I woke instead 
 The winds and waters to be your home for ever ; 
 And overturned the demon with a sound 
 
 42 
 
I had woven of the sleep that is in pools 
 Among great trees, and in the wings of owls, 
 And under lovers' eyelids. 
 
 {He kneels and holds the harp toward her.) 
 
 Bend your head 
 And lean your lips devoutly to this harp, 
 For he who gave it called it Aengus' harp 
 And said it was mightier than the sun and moon, 
 Or than the shivering casting-net of the stars. 
 
 {She takes the harp in her hands and kisses it.) 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 O, Aengus of the herds, watch over me I 
 I sat beside my foster-mother, and now 
 I am caught in woven nets of enchantment. Look ! 
 I have wet this braid of hair with tears while asleep, 
 
 43 
 
FORGAEL 
 
 {Standing upright again) 
 
 He watches over none but faithful lovers. 
 Edaine came out of Midher's hill, and lay 
 Beside young Aengus in his tower of glass, 
 Where time is drowned in odour-laden winds 
 And druid moons, and murmuring of boughs. 
 And sleepy boughs, and boughs where apples made 
 Of opal and ruby and pale chrysolite 
 Awake unsleeping fires ; and wove seven strings, 
 Sweet with all music, out of his long hair. 
 Because her hands had been made wild by love ; 
 When Midher's wife had changed her to a fly 
 He made a harp with druid apple wood 
 That she among her winds might know he wept ; 
 And from that hour he has watched over none 
 But faithful lovers. 
 
 44 
 
DECTORA 
 
 {Half rising) 
 Something glitters there — 
 There — there — by the oar. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The crown of a far country. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 That crown was in my dreams — no, no — in a rhyme. 
 I know you now, beseeching hands and eyes. 
 I have been waiting you. A moment since 
 My foster-mother sang in an old rhyme 
 That my true-love would come in a ship of pearl 
 Under a silken sail and silver yard, 
 And bring me where the children of Aengus wind 
 In happy dances, under a windy moon ; 
 But these waste waters and wind-beaten sails 
 
 45 
 
Are wiser witchcraft, for our peace awakes 
 In one another's arms. 
 
 (HI? has taken her in his arms.) 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Aengus has seen 
 His well-beloved through a mortal's eyes ; 
 And she, no longer blown among the winds, 
 Is laughing through a mortal's eyes. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 {Peering out over the waters) 
 
 O look ! 
 A red-eared hound follows a hornless deer. 
 There ! There ! They have gone quickly, for already 
 The cloudy waters and the glimmering winds 
 Have covered them. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Where did they vanish away ? 
 46 
 
DECTORA 
 
 Where the moon makes a cloudy light in the mist. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 {Gohig to the steering-oar) 
 
 The pale hound and the deer wander for ever 
 Among the winds and waters ; and when they pass 
 The mountain of the gods, the unappeasable gods 
 Cover their faces with their hair and weep. 
 They lure us to the streams where the world ends. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 All dies among those streams. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The fool has made 
 These messengers to lure men to his peace, 
 Where true-love wanders among the holy woods. 
 
 47 
 
DECTORA 
 
 What were true-love among the rush of his 
 
 streams ? 
 The gods weave nets, and take us in their nets, 
 And none knows wherefore ; but the heart's desire 
 Is this poor body that reddens and grows pale. 
 
 (^She goes toward him.) 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The fool, who has made the wisdom that men 
 
 write 
 Upon thin boards of yew and apple wood, 
 And all the wisdom that old images, 
 Made of dim gold, rave out in secret tombs, 
 Has told me that the undying send their eagles 
 To snatch alive out of the streams all lovers 
 
 48 
 
That have gone thither to look for the loud streams, 
 Folding their hearts' desire to their glad hearts. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 The love I know is hidden in these hands 
 That I would mix with yours, and in this hair 
 That I would shed like twilight over you. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The love of all under the light of the sun 
 Is but brief longing, and deceiving hope. 
 And bodily tenderness ; but love is made 
 Imperishable fire under the boughs 
 Of chrysoberyl and beryl and chrysolite, 
 And chrysoprase and ruby and sardonyx. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 Where are these boughs .f* Where are the holy 
 woods 
 G 49 
 
 ^ 
 
r 
 
 That can change love to imperishable fire ? 
 
 O ! I would break this net the gods have woven 
 
 Of voices and of dreams. O heart, be still ! 
 
 O ! why is love so crazy that it longs 
 
 To drown in its own image ? 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Even that sleep 
 That comes with love, comes murmuring of an 
 
 hour 
 When earth and heaven have been folded up ; 
 And languors that awake in mingling hands 
 And mingling hair fall from the fiery boughs, 
 To lead us to the streams where the world ends. 
 
 (AiBRic and some of the sailors come from the 
 other ship over the bulwark beyond the sail, 
 and gather in the dimness beyond the sail.) 
 
 50 
 
A SAILOR 
 
 They are always quarrelling. 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 Give me your swords. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 Eocha and Maine are always quarrelling. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Ale sets them quarrelling. 
 
 AIBRIC 
 
 Give me your swords. 
 
 A SAILOR 
 
 We will not quarrel, now that all is well, 
 And we go home. 
 
 51 
 
ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Come, Aibric ; end your tale 
 Of golden-armed lolan and the queen 
 That lives among the woods of the dark hounds. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 And tell how Mananan sacked Murias 
 Under the waves, and took a thousand women 
 When the dark hounds were loosed. 
 
 ANOTHER SAILOR 
 
 Come to the ale. 
 {They go into the other ship?) 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 {Going toward the sail) 
 I have begun remembering my dreams. 
 I have commanded men in dreams. Beloved, 
 We will go call these sailors, and escape 
 
 52 
 
The nets the gods have woven and our own hearts, 
 And, hurrying homeward, fall upon some land 
 And rule together under a canopy. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 All that know love among the winds of the world 
 Have found it like the froth upon the ale. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 We will find out valleys and woods and meadows 
 To wander in ; you have loved many women, 
 It may be, and have grown weary of love. 
 But I am new to love. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Go among these 
 That have known love among the winds of the 
 
 world 
 And tell its story over their brown ale. 
 
 53 
 
DECTORA 
 
 (Going a little nearer to the sail) 
 Love was not made for darkness and the winds 
 That blow when heaven and earth are withering, 
 For love is kind and happy. O come with me ! 
 Look on this body and this heavy hair ; 
 A stream 1ms told me they are beautiful. 
 The gods hate happiness, and weave their nets 
 Out of their hatred. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 My beloved, farewell. 
 Seek Aibric on the Lochlann galley, and tell him 
 That Forgael has followed the grey birds alone, 
 And bid him to your country. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I should wander 
 Hither and thither and say at the high noon 
 
 54 
 
How many hours to daybreak, because love 
 Has made my feet unsteady, and blinded me. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 I think that there is love in Aibric's eyes. 
 I know he will obey you ; and if your eyes 
 Should look upon his eyes with love, in the end 
 That would be happiest. He is a king 
 Among high mountains, and the mountain robbers 
 Have called him mighty. 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 I will follow you 
 Living or dying. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 Bid Aibric to your country, 
 Or go beside him to his mountain wars. 
 
 55 
 
DECTORA 
 
 I will follow you. 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 I will have none of you. 
 My love shakes out her hair upon the streams 
 Where the world ends, or runs from wind to wind 
 And eddy to eddy. Masters of our dreams, 
 Why have you cloven me with a mortal love ? 
 Pity these weeping eyes ! 
 
 DECTORA 
 
 {Going over to him and taking the crown from 
 before his feet) 
 
 I will follow you. 
 
 I have cut the rope that bound this galley to ours, 
 
 And while she fades and life withers away, 
 
 I crown you with this crown. 
 
 {She kneels beside him and puts her arms about him.) 
 
 56 
 
Bend lower, O king, 
 O flower of the branch, O bird among the leaves, 
 O silver fish that my two hands have taken 
 Out of a running stream, O morning star 
 Trembling in the blue heavens like a white fawn 
 Upon the misty border of the wood,— 
 Bend lower, that I may cover you with my hair^ 
 For we will gaze upon this world no longer. 
 
 {T^he harp begins to murmur of itself!) 
 
 FORGAEL 
 
 The harp-strings have begun to cry out to the 
 eagles. y^vT^nX' 
 
 57 
 
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press 
 
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