Public-domain ebook
by W. B. Yeats
Language: en462 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Poetry·Plays/Films/Dramas·Mythology, Legends & Folklore
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #49610.
The opening · free to read
The cottage of SHEMUS REA. The door into the open air is at right side of room. There is a window at one side of the door, and a little shrine of the Virgin Mother at the other. At the back is a door opening into a bedroom, and at the left side of the room a pantry door. A wood of oak, beech, hazel, and quicken is seen through the window half hidden in vapour and twilight. MAIRE watches TEIG, who fills a pot with water. He stops as if to listen, and spills some of the water.
MAIRE.
You are all thumbs.
TEIG.
Hear how the dog bays, mother, And how the gray hen flutters in the coop. Strange things are going up and down the land, These famine times: by Tubber-vanach crossroads A woman met a man with ears spread out, And they moved up and down like wings of bats.
MAIRE.
Shemus stays late.
TEIG.
By Carrick-orus churchyard, A herdsman met a man who had no mouth, Nor ears, nor eyes: his face a wall of flesh; He saw him plainly by the moon.
MAIRE.
White Mary, Bring Shemus home out of the wicked woods; Save Shemus from the wolves; Shemus is daring; And save him from the demons of the woods, Who have crept out and wander on the roads, Deluding dim-eyed souls now newly dead, And those alive who have gone crazed with famine. Save him, White Mary Virgin.
TEIG.
And but now I thought I heard far-off tympans and harps.
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