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Read Ebook: The Land of Heart's Desire by Yeats W B William Butler
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Ebook has 297 lines and 7562 words, and 6 pages
FATHER HART.
Did but the lawless angels see that door They would fall, slain by everlasting peace; And when such angels knock upon our doors Who goes with them must drive through the same storm.
MAIRE BRUIN.
A little queer old woman cloaked in green Who came to beg a porringer of milk.
BRIDGET BRUIN.
The good people go asking milk and fire Upon May Eve--Woe on the house that gives For they have power upon it for a year. I knew you would bring evil on the house
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
Who was she?
MAIRE BRUIN.
Both the tongue and face were strange.
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
Some strangers came last week to Clover Hill; She must be one of them.
BRIDGET BRUIN.
I am afraid.
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
The priest will keep all harm out of the house.
FATHER HART.
The Cross will keep all harm out of the house While it hangs there.
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
Come, sit beside me, colleen, And cut away your dreams of discontent, For I would have you light up my last days Like a bright torch of pine, and when I die I will make you the wealthiest hereabout; For hid away where nobody can find I have a stocking full of silver and gold.
BRIDGET BRUIN.
You are the fool of every pretty face, And I must pinch and pare that my son's wife May have all kinds of ribbons for her head.
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
Do not be cross; she is a right good girl! The butter's by your elbow, Father Hart. My colleen, have not Fate and Time and Change Done well for me and for old Bridget there? We have a hundred acres of good land, And sit beside each other at the fire, The wise priest of our parish to our right, And you and our dear son to left of us. To sit beside the board and drink good wine And watch the turf smoke coiling from the fire And feel content and wisdom in your heart, This is the best of life; when we are young We long to tread a way none trod before, But find the excellent old way through love And through the care of children to the hour For bidding Fate and Time and Change good-bye.
MAIRE BRUIN.
A little queer old man in a green coat, Who asked a burning sod to light his pipe.
BRIDGET BRUIN.
You have now given milk and fire and brought For all you know, evil upon the house. Before you married you were idle and fine, And went about with ribbons on your head; And now you are a good-for-nothing wife.
SHAWN BRUIN.
Be quiet, mother!
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
You are much too cross!
MAIRE BRUIN.
What do I care if I have given this house, Where I must hear all day a bitter tongue, Into the power of faeries!
BRIDGET BRUIN.
You know, well How calling the good people by that name Or talking of them over much at all May bring all kinds of evil on the house.
MAIRE BRUIN.
Come, faeries, take me out of this dull house! Let me have all the freedom I have lost-- Work when I will and idle when I will! Faeries, came take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame!
FATHER HART.
You cannot know the meaning of your words!
MAIRE BRUIN.
Father, I am right weary of four tongues: A tongue that is too crafty and too wise, A tongue that is too godly and too grave, A tongue that is more bitter than the tide, And a kind tongue too full of drowsy love, Of drowsy love and my captivity.
SHAWN BRUIN.
Do not blame me: I often lie awake Thinking that all things trouble your bright head-- How beautiful it is--such broad pale brows Under a cloudy blossoming of hair! Sit down beside me here--these are too old, And have forgotten they were ever young.
MAIRE BRUIN.
O, you are the great door-post of this house, And I the red nasturtium climbing up.
FATHER HART.
Good daughter, take his hand--by love alone God binds us to Himself and to the hearth And shuts us from the waste beyond His peace, From maddening freedom and bewildering light.
SHAWN BRUIN.
Would that the world were mine to give it you With every quiet hearth and barren waste, The maddening freedom of its woods and tides, And the bewildering lights upon its hills.
MAIRE BRUIN.
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