There where the course is, Delight makes all of the one mind, The riders upon the galloping horses, The crowd that closes in behind: We, too, had good attendance once, Hearers and hearteners of the work; Aye, horsemen for companions, Before the merchant and the clerk Breathed on the world with timid breath. Sing on: sometime, and at some new moon, We'll learn that sleeping is not death, Hearing the whole earth change its tune, Its flesh being wild, and it again Crying aloud as the race course is, And we find hearteners among men That ride upon horses. A FRIEND'S ILLNESS Sickness brought me this Thought, in that scale of his: Why should I be dismayed Though flame had burned the whole World, as it were a coal, Now I have seen it weighed Against a soul? ALL THINGS CAN TEMPT ME All things can tempt me from this craft of verse: One time it was a woman's face, or worse-- The seeming needs of my fool-driven land; Now nothing but comes readier to the hand Than this accustomed toil. When I was young, I had not given a penny for a song Did not the poet sing it with such airs That one believed he had a sword upstairs; Yet would be now, could I but have my wish, Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish. THE YOUNG MAN'S SONG I whispered, 'I am too young,' And then, 'I am old enough;' Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love. 'Go and love, go and love, young man, If the lady be young and fair.' Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, I am looped in the loops of her hair. Oh, love is the crooked thing, There is nobody wise enough To find out all that is in it, For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away, And the shadows eaten the moon. Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, One cannot begin it too soon. * * * * * THE HOUR-GLASS NEW VERSION--1912 THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY WISE MAN. BRIDGET, his wife. TEIGUE, a fool. ANGEL. Children and Pupils. _Pupils come in and stand before the stage curtain, which is still closed. One pupil carries a book._ FIRST PUPIL He said we might choose the subject for the lesson. SECOND PUPIL There is none of us wise enough to do that. THIRD PUPIL It would need a great deal of wisdom to know what it is we want to know. FOURTH PUPIL I will question him. FIFTH PUPIL You? FOURTH PUPIL Last night I dreamt that some one came and told me to question him. I was to say to him, 'You were wrong to say there is no God and no soul--maybe, if there is not much of either, there is yet some tatters, some tag on the wind--so to speak--some rag upon a bush, some bob-tail of a god.' I will argue with him,--nonsense though it be--according to my dream, and you will see how well I can argue, and what thoughts I have. FIRST PUPIL I'd as soon listen to dried peas in a bladder, as listen to your thoughts.