The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 2 (of 8): The King's Threshold. On Baile's Strand. Deirdre. Shadowy WatersYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 2 (of 8): The King's Threshold. On Baile's Strand. Deirdre. Shadowy Waters
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
English literature -- Irish authors
But you were saying there is somebody
Upon that other ship we are to wake.
You did not know what brought him to his end,
But it was sudden.
SECOND SAILOR.
You are in the right;
I had forgotten that we must go wake him.
DECTORA.
He has flung a Druid spell upon the air,
And set you dreaming.
SECOND SAILOR.
How can we have a wake
When we have neither brown nor yellow ale?
FIRST SAILOR.
I saw a flagon of brown ale aboard her.
THIRD SAILOR.
How can we raise the keen that do not know
What name to call him by?
FIRST SAILOR.
Come to his ship.
His name will come into our thoughts in a minute.
I know that he died a thousand years ago,
And has not yet been waked.
SECOND SAILOR [_beginning to keen_].
Ohone! O! O! O!
The yew bough has been broken into two,
And all the birds are scattered.
ALL THE SAILORS.
O! O! O! O!
[_They go out keening._
DECTORA.
Protect me now, gods, that my people swear by.
[_AIBRIC has risen from the ground where he had fallen.
He has begun looking for his sword as if in a dream._
AIBRIC.
Where is my sword that fell out of my hand
When I first heard the news? Ah, there it is!
[_He goes dreamily towards the sword, but DECTORA runs
at it and takes it up before he can reach it._
AIBRIC [_sleepily_].
Queen, give it me.
DECTORA.
No, I have need of it.
AIBRIC.
Why do you need a sword? But you may keep it,
Now that he’s dead I have no need of it,
For everything is gone.
A SAILOR.
[_Calling from the other ship._]
Come hither, Aibric,
And tell me who it is that we are waking.
AIBRIC.
[_Half to DECTORA, half to himself._]
What name had that dead king? Arthur of Britain?
No, no—not Arthur. I remember now.
It was golden-armed Iollan, and he died
Brokenhearted, having lost his queen
Through wicked spells. That is not all the tale,
For he was killed. O! O! O! O! O! O!
For golden-armed Iollan has been killed.
[_He goes out._
[_While he has been speaking, and through part of what
follows, one hears the wailing of the SAILORS from the
other ship. DECTORA stands with the sword lifted in
front of FORGAEL._
DECTORA.
I will end all your magic on the instant.
[_Her voice becomes dreamy, and she lowers the sword
slowly, and finally lets it fall. She spreads out her
hair. She takes off her crown and lays it upon the
deck._
This sword is to lie beside him in the grave.
It was in all his battles. I will spread my hair,
And wring my hands, and wail him bitterly,
For I have heard that he was proud and laughing,
Blue-eyed, and a quick runner on bare feet,
And that he died a thousand years ago.
O! O! O!
[_FORGAEL changes the tune._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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