A SONG FROM "THE PLAYER QUEEN'

MY mother dandled me and sang,
"How young it is, how young!'

And made a golden cradle
That on a willow swung.

"He went away,' my mother sang,
"When I was brought to bed,'

And all the while her needle pulled
The gold and silver thread.

She pulled the thread and bit the thread
And made a golden gown,

And wept because she had dreamt that I
Was born to wear a crown.

"When she was got,' my mother sang,
I heard a sea-mew cry,

And saw a flake of the yellow foam
That dropped upon my thigh."

How therefore could she help but braid
The gold into my hair,

And dream that I should carry
The golden top of care?

POLITICS
HOW can I, that girl standing there,

My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian

Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows

What he talks about,
And there's a politician

That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true

Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again

And held her in my arms!
PRESENCES

THIS night has been so strange that it seemed
As if the hair stood up on my head.

From going-down of the sun I have dreamed
That women laughing, or timid or wild,

In rustle of lace or silken stuff,
Climbed up my creaking stair. They had read

All I had rhymed of that monstrous thing
Returned and yet unrequited love.

They stood in the door and stood between
My great wood lectern and the fire

Till I could hear their hearts beating:
One is a harlot, and one a child

That never looked upon man with desire.
And one, it may be, a queen.

QUARREL IN OLD AGE
WHERE had her sweetness gone?

What fanatics invent
In this blind bitter town,

Fantasy or incident
Not worth thinking of,

put her in a rage.
I had forgiven enough

That had forgiven old age.
All lives that has lived;

So much is certain;
Old sages were not deceived:

Somewhere beyond the curtain
Of distorting days

Lives that lonely thing
That shone before these eyes

Targeted, trod like Spring.
RECONCILIATION

SOME may have blamed you that you took away
The verses that could move them on the day

When, the ears being deafened, the sight of the eyes blind
With lightning, you went from me, and I could find

Nothing to make a song about but kings,
Helmets, and swords, and half-forgotten things

That were like memories of you -- but now
We'll out, for the world lives as long ago;

And while we're in our laughing, weeping fit,
Hurl helmets, crowns, and swords into the pit.

But, dear, cling close to me; since you were gone,
My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone.

REMORSE FOR INTEMPERATE SPEECH
I RANTED to the knave and fool,

But outgrew that school,
Would transform the part,

Fit audience found, but cannot rule
My fanatic heart.

I sought my betters: though in each
Fine manners, liberal speech,

Turn hatred into sport,
Nothing said or done can reach

My fanatic heart,
Out of Ireland have we come.

Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us at the start.

I carry from my mother's womb
A fanatic heart.

THE RESULTS OF THOUGHT
ACQUAINTANCE; companion;

One dear brilliant woman;
The best-endowed, the elect,

All by their youth undone,
All, all, by that inhuman

Bitter glory wrecked.
But I have straightened out

Ruin, wreck and wrack;
I toiled long years and at length

Came to so deep a thought
I can summon back

All their wholesome strength.
What images are these

That turn dull-eyed away,
Or Shift Time's filthy load,

Straighten aged knees,
Hesitate or stay?

What heads shake or nod?
ROGER CASEMENT

I SAY that Roger Casement
Did what he had to do.

He died upon the gallows,
But that is nothing new.

Afraid they might be beaten
Before the bench of Time,

They turned a trick by forgery
And blackened his good name.

A perjurer stood ready
To prove their forgery true;

They gave it out to all the world,
And that is something new;

For Spring Rice had to whisper it,
Being their Ambassador,

And then the speakers got it
And writers by the score.

Come Tom and Dick, come all the troop
That cried it far and wide,

Come from the forger and his desk,
Desert the perjurer's side;

Come speak your bit in public
That some amends be made

To this most gallant gentleman
That is in quicklime laid.

THE ROSE OF BATTLE
ROSE of all Roses, Rose of all the World!

The tall thought-woven sails, that flap unfurled
Above the tide of hours, trouble the air,

And God's bell buoyed to be the water's care;
While hushed from fear, or loud with hope, a band

With blown, spray-dabbled hair gather at hand,
i{Turn if you may from battles never done,}

I call, as they go by me one by one,
i{Danger no refuge holds, and war no peace,}

i{For him who hears love sing and never cease,}
i{Beside her clean-swept hearth, her quiet shade:}

i{But gather all for whom no love hath made}
i{A woven silence, or but came to cast}

i{A song into the air, and singing passed}
i{To smile on the pale dawn; and gather you}

i{Who have sougft more than is in rain or dew,}
i{Or in the sun and moon, or on the earth,}

i{Or sighs amid the wandering, starry mirth,}
i{Or comes in laughter from the sea's sad lips,}

i{And wage God's battles in the long grey ships.}
i{The sad, the lonely, the insatiable,}

i{To these Old Night shall all her mystery tell;}
i{God's bell has claimed them by the little cry}

i{Of their sad hearts, that may not live nor die.}
Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!

You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring

The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.
Beauty grown sad with its eternity

Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea.
Our long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait,

For God has bid them share an equal fate;
And when at last, defeated in His wars,

They have gone down under the same white stars,
We shall no longer hear the little cry

Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die.
THE ROSE OF THE WORLD

WHO dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?
For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,

Mournful that no new wonder may betide,
Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,

And Usna's children died.
We and the labouring world are passing by:

Amid men's souls, that waver and give place
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,

Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.

Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:
Before you were, or any hearts to beat,

Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;
He made the world to be a grassy road

Before her wandering feet.
DOWN BY THE SALLEY GARDENS

DOWN by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white

feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the

tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not

agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,

• player [´pleiə] n.游戏的人；选手 (初中英语单词)
• willow [´wiləu] n.柳树 (初中英语单词)
• needle [´ni:dl] n.针；指针 v.用针缝 (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• rustle [´rʌsl] v.&n.(使)沙沙作响 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• lightning [´laitniŋ] n.闪电 a.突然的 (初中英语单词)
• barren [´bærən] a.贫瘠的；不生育的 (初中英语单词)
• audience [´ɔ:diəns] n.听众；观众；接见 (初中英语单词)
• liberal [´libərəl] a.大方的 n.开明的人 (初中英语单词)
• hatred [´heitrid] n.憎恨，敌意 (初中英语单词)
• brilliant [´briliənt] a.灿烂的；杰出的 (初中英语单词)
• whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
• gallant [´gælənt, gə´lænt] a.英勇的；华丽的 (初中英语单词)
• refuge [´refju:dʒ] v.&n.避难(所)；庇护 (初中英语单词)
• laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
• mystery [´mistəri] n.神秘；秘密；故弄玄虚 (初中英语单词)
• funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
• silken [´silkən] a.丝制的；柔软光滑的 (高中英语单词)
• monstrous [´mɔnstrəs] a.怪异的；庞大的 (高中英语单词)
• sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
• transform [træns´fɔ:m] v.转化，转变；改造 (高中英语单词)
• ireland [´aiələnd] n.爱尔兰 (高中英语单词)
• summon [´sʌmən] vt.召集；号召 (高中英语单词)
• wholesome [´həulsəm] a.有益于健康的 (高中英语单词)
• hearth [hɑ:θ] n.炉边；家庭(生活) (高中英语单词)
• forgiven [fə´givn] forgive的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• filthy [´filθi] a.污秽的，肮脏的 (英语四级单词)
• starry [´stɑ:ri] a.星光照耀的，闪亮的 (英语四级单词)
• mournful [´mɔ:nful] a.令人沮丧的 (英语四级单词)
• grassy [´grɑ:si] a.多草的；青草味的 (英语四级单词)
• weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)
• fanatic [fə´nætik] a.狂热的 n.狂热者 (英语六级单词)
• amends [ə´mendz] n.赔偿；赔罪 (英语六级单词)
• wharves [wɔ:vz] wharf的复数 (英语六级单词)
• wintry [´wintri] a.冬天的；荒凉的 (英语六级单词)