17 March 2015

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Glencar Lake and Ben Bulben, County Sligo, Ireland. Photo from here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! As I've done in the past, I'm going to celebrate today by sharing with you a poem by my favourite poet, W.B. Yeats. The Stolen Child is set in county Sligo, Ireland where Yeats spent his childhood and where I studied his poetry one summer many years ago. 


The Stolen Child

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, 
There lies a leafy island 
Where flapping herons wake 
The drowsy water rats; 
There we’ve hid our faery vats, 
Full of berrys 
And of reddest stolen cherries. 
Come away, O human child! 
To the waters and the wild 
With a faery, hand in hand, 
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. 

Where the wave of moonlight glosses 
The dim gray sands with light, 
Far off by furthest Rosses 
We foot it all the night, 
Weaving olden dances 
Mingling hands and mingling glances 
Till the moon has taken flight; 
To and fro we leap 
And chase the frothy bubbles, 
While the world is full of troubles 
And anxious in its sleep. 
Come away, O human child! 
To the waters and the wild 
With a faery, hand in hand, 
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. 

Where the wandering water gushes 
From the hills above Glen-Car, 
In pools among the rushes 
That scarce could bathe a star, 
We seek for slumbering trout 
And whispering in their ears 
Give them unquiet dreams; 
Leaning softly out 
From ferns that drop their tears 
Over the young streams. 
Come away, O human child! 
To the waters and the wild 
With a faery, hand in hand, 
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. 

Away with us he’s going, 
The solemn-eyed: 
He’ll hear no more the lowing 
Of the calves on the warm hillside 
Or the kettle on the hob 
Sing peace into his breast, 
Or see the brown mice bob 
Round and round the oatmeal chest. 
For he comes, the human child, 
To the waters and the wild 
With a faery, hand in hand, 
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.

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