With the feet laid side by side.

Bathed in flaming founts of duty
She'll not ask a haughty dress;

Carry all that mournful beauty
To the scented oaken press.

Did the kiss of Mother Mary
Put that music in her face?

Yet she goes with footstep wary,
Full of earth's old timid grace.

'Mong the feet of angels seven
What a dancer glimmering!

All the heavens bow down to Heaven,
Flame to flame and wing to wing.

CRAZY JANE ON THE MOUNTAIN
I AM tired of cursing the Bishop,

(Said Crazy Jane)
Nine books or nine hats

Would not make him a man.
I have found something worse

To meditate on.
A King had some beautiful cousins.

But where are they gone?
Battered to death in a cellar,

And he stuck to his throne.
Last night I lay on the mountain.

(Said Crazy Jane)
There in a two-horsed carriage

That on two wheels ran
Great-bladdered Emer sat.

Her violent man
Cuchulain sat at her side;

Thereupon'
Propped upon my two knees,

I kissed a stone
I lay stretched out in the dirt

And I cried tears down.
CUCHULAIN COMFORTED

A MAN that had six mortal wounds, a man
Violent and famous, strode among the dead;

Eyes stared out of the branches and were gone.
Then certain Shrouds that muttered head to head

Came and were gone. He leant upon a tree
As though to meditate on wounds and blood.

A Shroud that seemed to have authority
Among those bird-like things came, and let fall

A bundle of linen. Shrouds by two and thrce
Came creeping up because the man was still.

And thereupon that linen-carrier said:
"Your life can grow much sweeter if you will

"Obey our ancient rule and make a shroud;
Mainly because of what we only know

The rattle of those arms makes us afraid.
"We thread the needles' eyes, and all we do

All must together do.' That done, the man
Took up the nearest and began to sew.

"Now must we sing and sing the best we can,
But first you must be told our character:

Convicted cowards all, by kindred slain
"Or driven from home and left to dic in fear.'

They sang, but had nor human tunes nor words,
Though all was done in common as before;

They had changed their thtoats and had the throats of
birds.

THE CURSE OF CROMWELL
YOU ask what -- I have found, and far and wide I go:

Nothing but Cromwell's house and Cromwell's mur-
derous crew,

The lovers and the dancers are beaten into the clay,
And the tall men and the swordsmen and the horsemen,

where are they?
And there is an old beggar wandering in his pride -- -

His fathers served their fathers before Christ was
crucified.

i{O what of that, O what of that,}
"i{What is there left to say?}

All neighbourly content and easy talk are gone,
But there's no good complaining, for money's rant is

on.
He that's mounting up must on his neighbour mount,

And we and all the Muses are things of no account.
They have schooling of their own, but I pass their

schooling by,
What can they know that we know that know the

time to die?
i{O what of that, O what of that,}

i{What is there left to say?}
But there's another knowledge that my heart destroys,

As the fox in the old fable destroyed the Spartan boy's
Because it proves that things both can and cannot be;

That the swordsmen and the ladies can still keep com-
pany,

Can pay the poet for a verse and hear the fiddle sound,
That I am still their setvant though all are under-

ground.
i{O what of that, O what of that,}

i{What is there left to say?}
I came on a great house in the middle of the night,

Its open lighted doorway and its windows all alight,
And all my friends were there and made me welcome

too;
But I woke in an old ruin that the winds. howled

through;
And when I pay attention I must out and walk

Among the dogs and horses that understand my talk.
i{O what of that, O what of that,}

i{What is there left to say?}
THE DEDICATION TO A BOOK OF STORIES

SELECTED FROM THE IRISH NOVELISTS
THERE was a green branch hung with many a bell

When her own people ruled this tragic Eire;
And from its murmuring greenness, calm of Faery,

A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.
It charmed away the merchant from his guile,

And turned the farmer's memory from his cattle,
And hushed in sleep the roaring ranks of battle:

And all grew friendly for a little while.
Ah, Exiles wandering over lands and seas,

And planning, plotting always that some morrow
May set a stone upon ancestral Sorrow!

I also bear a bell-branch full of ease.
I tore it from green boughs winds tore and tossed

Until the sap of summer had grown weary!
I tore it from the barren boughs of Eire,

That country where a man can be so crossed;
Can be so battered, badgered and destroyed

That he's a loveless man: gay bells bring laughter
That shakes a mouldering cobweb from the rafter;

And yet the saddest chimes are best enjoyed.
Gay bells or sad, they bring you memories

Of half-forgotten innocent old places:
We and our bitterness have left no traces

On Munster grass and Connemara skies.
DEMON AND BEAST

FOR certain minutes at the least
That crafty demon and that loud beast

That plague me day and night
Ran out of my sight;

Though I had long perned in the gyre,
Between my hatred and desire.

I saw my freedom won
And all laugh in the sun.

The glittering eyes in a death's head
Of old Luke Wadding's portrait said

Welcome, and the Ormondes all
Nodded upon the wall,

And even Strafford smiled as though
It made him happier to know

I understood his plan.
Now that the loud beast ran

There was no portrait in the Gallery
But beckoned to sweet company,

For all men's thoughts grew clear
Being dear as mine are dear.

But soon a tear-drop started up,
For aimless joy had made me stop

Beside the little lake
To watch a white gull take

A bit of bread thrown up into the air;
Now gyring down and perning there

He splashed where an absurd
Portly green-pated bird

Shook off the water from his back;
Being no more demoniac

A stupid happy creature
Could rouse my whole nature.

Yet I am certain as can be
That every natural victory

Belongs to beast or demon,
That never yet had freeman

Right mastery of natural things,
And that mere growing old, that brings

Chilled blood, this sweetness brought;
Yet have no dearer thought

Than that I may find out a way
To make it linger half a day.

O what a sweetness strayed
Through barren Thebaid,

Or by the Mareotic sea
When that exultant Anthony

And twice a thousand more
Starved upon the shore

And withered to a bag of bones!
What had the Caesars but their thrones?

O DO NOT LOVE TOO LONG
SWEETHEART, do not love too long:

I loved long and long,
And grew to be out of fashion

Like an old song.
All through the years of our youth

Neither could have known
Their own thought from the other's,

We were so much at one.
But O, in a minute she changed --

O do not love too long,
Or you will grow out of fashion

Like an old song.
A DREAM OF DEATH

I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place
Near no accustomed hand,

And they had nailed the boards above her face,
The peasants of that land,

• violent [´vaiələnt] a.强暴的；猛烈的 (初中英语单词)
• bundle [´bʌndl] n.包，捆；包袱(裹) (初中英语单词)
• thereupon [,ðeərə´pɔn] ad.因此；于是 (初中英语单词)
• rattle [´rætl] n.嘎吱声 (初中英语单词)
• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• beaten [´bi:tn] beat 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• beggar [´begə] n.乞丐 (初中英语单词)
• christ [kraist] n.基督 int.天啊! (初中英语单词)
• doorway [´dɔ:wei] n.门口 (初中英语单词)
• barren [´bærən] a.贫瘠的；不生育的 (初中英语单词)
• innocent [´inəsənt] a.无罪的；单纯的 (初中英语单词)
• hatred [´heitrid] n.憎恨，敌意 (初中英语单词)
• aimless [´eimlis] a.没有目标；无目的的 (初中英语单词)
• stupid [´stju:pid] a.愚蠢的；糊涂的 (初中英语单词)
• linger [´liŋgə] v.逗留；留恋；拖延 (初中英语单词)
• haughty [´hɔ:ti] a.傲慢的，高傲的 (高中英语单词)
• footstep [´futstep] n.足迹，脚步声 (高中英语单词)
• dancer [´dɑ:nsə] n.舞蹈者，舞蹈演员 (高中英语单词)
• mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
• strode [strəud] stride的过去式 (高中英语单词)
• kindred [´kindrid] n.亲属关系；同源关系 (高中英语单词)
• tragic [´trædʒik] a.悲剧的；悲惨的 (高中英语单词)
• bitterness [´bitənis] n.苦味；辛酸；苦难 (高中英语单词)
• plague [pleig] n.瘟疫 vt.使...染疫 (高中英语单词)
• portrait [´pɔ:trit] n.肖像；相片；雕像 (高中英语单词)
• sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
• flaming [´fleimiŋ] a.熊熊燃烧的；热情的 (英语四级单词)
• mournful [´mɔ:nful] a.令人沮丧的 (英语四级单词)
• meditate [´mediteit] v.考虑；策划；反省 (英语四级单词)
• shroud [ʃraud] n.尸衣；覆盖物；罩 (英语四级单词)
• fiddle [´fidl] n.小提琴 v.拉提琴 (英语四级单词)
• ancestral [æn´sestrəl] a.祖先的；祖传的 (英语四级单词)
• cobweb [´kɔbweb] n.蜘蛛网；蛛丝 (英语四级单词)
• crafty [´krɑ:fti] a.狡猾的 (英语六级单词)
• mastery [´mɑ:stəri] n.精通；控制；优势 (英语六级单词)