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W. B. Yeats
THE OLD AGE OF QUEEN MAEVE.
(01) 01 : Maeve the great queen was pacing to and fro,
02 : Between the walls covered with beaten bronze,
03 : In her high house at Cruachan; the long hearth,
04 : Flickering with ash and hazel, but half showed
05 : Where the tired horse-boys lay upon the rushes,
06 : Or on the benches underneath the walls,
07 : In comfortable sleep; all living slept
08 : But that great queen, who more than half the night
09 : Had paced from door to fire and fire to door.
10 : Though now in her old age, in her young age
11 : She had been beautiful in that old way
12 : That's all but gone; for the proud heart is gone
13 : And the fool heart of the counting-house fears all
14 : But soft beauty and indolent desire.
15 : She could have called over the rim of the world
16 : Whatever woman's lover had hit her fancy,
17 : And yet had been great bodied and great limbed,
18 : Fashioned to be the mother of strong children;
19 : And she'd had lucky eyes and a high heart,
20 : And wisdom that caught fire like the dried flax,
21 : At need, and made her beautiful and fierce,
22 : Sudden and laughing.
23 : O unquiet heart,
24 : Why do you praise another, praising her,
25 : As if there were no tale but your own tale
26 : Worth knitting to a measure of sweet sound?
27 : Have I not bid you tell of that great queen
28 : Who has been buried some two thousand years?
(02) 29 : When night was at its deepest, a wild goose
30 : Cried from the porter's lodge, and with long clamour
31 : Shook the ale horns and shields upon their hooks;
32 : But the horse-boys slept on, as though some power
33 : Had filled the house with Druid heaviness;
34 : And wondering who of the many changing Sidhe
35 : Had come as in the old times to counsel her,
36 : Maeve walked, yet with slow footfall being old,
37 : To that small chamber by the outer gate.
38 : The porter slept although he sat upright
39 : With still and stony limbs and open eyes.
40 : Maeve waited, and when that ear-piercing noise
41 : Broke from his parted lips and broke again,
42 : She laid a hand on either of his shoulders,
43 : And shook him wide awake, and bid him say
44 : Who of the wandering many-changing ones
45 : Had troubled his sleep. But all he had to say
46 : Was that, the air being heavy and the dogs
47 : More still than they had been for a good month,
48 : He had fallen asleep, and, though he had dreamed nothing,
49 : He could remember when he had had fine dreams.
50 : It was before the time of the great war
51 : Over the White-Horned Bull, and the Brown Bull.
(03) 52 : She turned away; he turned again to sleep
53 : That no god troubled now, and, wondering
54 : What matters were afoot among the Sidhe,
55 : Maeve walked through that great hall, and with a sigh
56 : Lifted the curtain of her sleeping room,
57 : Remembering that she too had seemed divine
58 : To many thousand eyes, and to her own
59 : One that the generations had long waited
60 : That work too difficult for mortal hands
61 : Might be accomplished. Bunching the curtain up
62 : She saw her husband Ailell sleeping there,
63 : And thought of days when he'd had a straight body,
64 : And of that famous Fergus, Nessa's husband,
65 : Who had been the lover of her middle life.
(04) 66 : Suddenly Ailell spoke out of his sleep,
67 : And not with his own voice or a man's voice,
68 : But with the burning, live, unshaken voice
69 : Of those that it may be can never age.
70 : He said, 'High Queen of Cruachan and Mag Ai
71 : A king of the Great Plain would speak with you.'
72 : And with glad voice Maeve answered him, 'What King
73 : Of the far wandering shadows has come to me?
74 : As in the old days when they would come and go
75 : About my threshold to counsel and to help.'
76 : The parted lips replied, 'I seek your help,
77 : For I am Aengus and I am crossed in love.'
(05) 78 : 'How may a mortal whose life gutters out
79 : Help them that wander with hand clasping hand
80 : By rivers where nor rain nor hail has dimmed
81 : Their haughty images, that cannot fade
82 : Although their beauty's like a hollow dream.'
(06) 83 : 'I come from the undimmed rivers to bid you call
84 : The children of the Maines out of sleep,
85 : And set them digging into Anbual's hill.
86 : We shadows, while they uproot his earthy house,
87 : Will overthrow his shadows and carry off
88 : Caer, his blue eyed daughter that I love.
89 : I helped your fathers when they built these walls
90 : And I would have your help in my great need,
91 : Queen of high Cruachan.'
92 : 'I obey your will
93 : With speedy feet and a most thankful heart:
94 : For you have been, O Aengus of the birds,
95 : Our giver of good counsel and good luck.'
96 : And with a groan, as if the mortal breath
97 : Could but awaken sadly upon lips
98 : That happier breath had moved, her husband turned
99 : Face downward, tossing in a troubled sleep;
100 : But Maeve, and not with a slow feeble foot,
101 : Came to the threshold of the painted house,
102 : Where her grandchildren slept, and cried aloud,
103 : Until the pillared dark began to stir
104 : With shouting and the clang of unhooked arms.
(07) 105 : She told them of the many-changing ones;
106 : And all that night, and all through the next day
107 : To middle night, they dug into the hill.
108 : At middle night great cats with silver claws,
109 : Bodies of shadow and blind eyes like pearls,
110 : Came up out of the hole, and red-eared hounds
111 : With long white bodies came out of the air
112 : Suddenly, and ran at them and harried them.
(08) 113 : The Maines' children dropped their spades, and stood
114 : With quaking joints and terror strucken faces,
115 : Till Maeve called out, 'These are but common men.
116 : The Maines' children have not dropped their spades
117 : Because Earth crazy for its broken power
118 : Casts up a show and the winds answer it
119 : With holy shadows.' Her high heart was glad,
120 : And when the uproar ran along the grass
121 : She followed with light footfall in the midst,
122 : Till it died out where an old thorn tree stood.
(09) 123 : Friend of these many years, you too had stood
124 : With equal courage in that whirling rout;
125 : For you, although you've not her wandering heart,
126 : Have all that greatness, and not hers alone.
127 : For there is no high story about queens
128 : In any ancient book but tells of you,
129 : And when I've heard how they grew old and died
130 : Or fell into unhappiness I've said;
131 : 'She will grow old and die and she has wept!'
132 : And when I'd write it out anew, the words,
133 : Half crazy with the thought, She too has wept!
134 : Outrun the measure.
135 : I'd tell of that great queen
136 : Who stood amid a silence by the thorn
137 : Until two lovers came out of the air
138 : With bodies made out of soft fire. The one
139 : About whose face birds wagged their fiery wings
140 : Said, 'Aengus and his sweetheart give their thanks
141 : To Maeve and to Maeve's household, owing all
142 : In owing them the bride-bed that gives peace.'
143 : Then Maeve, 'O Aengus, Master of all lovers,
144 : A thousand years ago you held high talk
145 : With the first kings of many pillared Cruachan.
146 : O when will you grow weary.'
147 : They had vanished,
148 : But out of the dark air over her head there came
149 : A murmur of soft words and meeting lips.