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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars — John Shaqi

The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the StarsYeats, W. B. (William Butler)

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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars

Name: The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars
Author: Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)

Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)

English literature -- Irish authors

I will not cook for you: you are not human:
    Before you came two horned owls looked at us;
    The dog bayed, and the tongue of Shemus maddened.
    When you came in the Virgin’s blessed shrine
    Fell from its nail, and when you sat down here
    You poured out wine as the wood sidheogs do
    When they’d entice a soul out of the world.
    Why did you come to us? Was not death near?

FIRST MERCHANT.

    We are two merchants.

MAIRE.

                         If you be not demons,
    Go and give alms among the starving poor,
    You seem more rich than any under the moon.

FIRST MERCHANT.

    If we knew where to find deserving poor,
    We would give alms.

MAIRE.

    Then ask of Father John.

FIRST MERCHANT.

    We know the evils of mere charity,
    And have been planning out a wiser way.
    Let each man bring one piece of merchandise.

MAIRE.

    And have the starving any merchandise?

FIRST MERCHANT.

    We do but ask what each man has.

MAIRE.

                                  Merchants,
    Their swine and cattle, fields and implements,
    Are sold and gone.

FIRST MERCHANT.

    They have not sold all yet.

MAIRE.

    What have they?

FIRST MERCHANT.

    They have still their souls.

    [_MAIRE shrieks. He beckons to TEIG and SHEMUS._

                                     Come hither.
    See you these little golden heaps? Each one
    Is payment for a soul. From charity
    We give so great a price for those poor flames.
    Say to all men we buy men’s souls—away.

    [_They do not stir._

    This pile is for you and this one here for you.

MAIRE.

    Shemus and Teig, Teig—

TEIG.

    Out of the way.

    [_SHEMUS and TEIG take the money._

FIRST MERCHANT.

    Cry out at cross-roads and at chapel doors
    And market-places that we buy men’s souls,
    Giving so great a price that men may live
    In mirth and ease until the famine ends.

    [_TEIG and SHEMUS go out._

MAIRE [_kneeling_].

    Destroyers of souls, may God destroy you quickly!

FIRST MERCHANT.

    No curse can overthrow the immortal demons.

MAIRE.

    You shall at last dry like dry leaves, and hang
    Nailed like dead vermin to the doors of God.

FIRST MERCHANT.

    You shall be ours. This famine shall not cease.
    You shall eat grass, and dock, and dandelion,
    And fail till this stone threshold seem a wall,
    And when your hands can scarcely drag your body
    We shall be near you.

    [_To SECOND MERCHANT._

    Bring the meal out.

    [_The SECOND MERCHANT brings the bag of meal from the
    pantry._

                           Burn it.      [_MAIRE faints._
    Now she has swooned, our faces go unscratched;
    Bring me the gray hen, too.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8): The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars

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