[_He stands up; almost everyone is kneeling, but it has grown so dark that only confused forms can be seen._] And I who weep Call curses on you, Time and Fate and Change, And have no excellent hope but the great hour When you shall plunge headlong through bottomless space. [_A flash of lightning followed immediately by thunder._ A PEASANT WOMAN. Pull him upon his knees before his curses Have plucked thunder and lightning on our heads. ALEEL. Angels and devils clash in the middle air, And brazen swords clang upon brazen helms: [_A flash of lightning followed immediately by thunder._] Yonder a bright spear, cast out of a sling, Has torn through Balor’s eye, and the dark clans Fly screaming as they fled Moytura of old. [_Everything is lost in darkness._ AN OLD MAN. The Almighty, wrath at our great weakness and sin, Has blotted out the world and we must die. [_The darkness is broken by a visionary light. The peasants seem to be kneeling upon the rocky slope of a mountain, and vapour full of storm and ever-changing light is sweeping above them and behind them. Half in the light, half in the shadow, stand armed Angels. Their armour is old and worn, and their drawn swords dim and dinted. They stand as if upon the air in formation of battle and look downward with stern faces. The peasants cast themselves on the ground._ ALEEL. Look no more on the half-closed gates of Hell, But speak to me, whose mind is smitten of God, That it may be no more with mortal things; And tell of her who lies here. [_He seizes one of the Angels._] Till you speak You shall not drift into eternity. THE ANGEL. The light beats down: the gates of pearl are wide, And she is passing to the floor of peace, And Mary of the seven times wounded heart Has kissed her lips, and the long blessed hair Has fallen on her face; the Light of Lights Looks always on the motive, not the deed, The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone. [_ALEEL releases the Angel and kneels._ OONA. Tell them who walk upon the floor of peace That I would die and go to her I love; The years like great black oxen tread the world, And God the herdsman goads them on behind, And I am broken by their passing feet. [_A sound of far-off horns seems to come from the heart of the light. The vision melts away, and the forms of the kneeling peasants appear faintly in the darkness._] THE LAND OF HEART’S DESIRE ‘O Rose, thou art sick.’—_William Blake._ TO FLORENCE FARR _PERSONS IN THE PLAY_ MAURTEEN BRUIN SHAWN BRUIN FATHER HART BRIDGET BRUIN MAIRE BRUIN A FAERY CHILD _The scene is laid in the Barony of Kilmacowen, in the County of Sligo, and the characters are supposed to speak in Gaelic. They wear the costume of a century ago._ THE LAND OF HEART’S DESIRE