A doll in the doll-maker’s house
Looks at the cradle and bawls:
‘That is an insult to us.’
But the oldest of all the dolls,
Who had seen, being kept for show,
Generations of his sort,
Out-screams the whole shelf: Although
There’s not a man can report
Evil of this place,
The man and the woman bring
Hither, to our disgrace,
A noisy and filthy thing.’
Hearing him groan and stretch
The doll-maker’s wife is aware
Her husband has heard the wretch,
And crouched by the arm of his chair,
She murmurs into his ear,
Head upon shoulder leant:
‘My dear, my dear, oh dear,
It was an accident.’

A Coat

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eye
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

Alphabetical List of Titles

Adam’s Curse

Aedh Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes

Aedh Hears the Cry of the Sedge

Aedh Laments the Loss of Love

Aedh Pleads with the Elemental Powers

Aedh Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers

Aedh Tells of the Perfect Beauty

Aedh Tells of the Rose in His Heart

Aedh Thinks of Those Who Have Spoken Evil of His Beloved

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Aedh Wishes His Beloved Were Dead

Against Unworthy Praise

All Things Can Tempt Me

Anashuya and Vijaya

Appointment, An

Arrow, The

At Galway Races

Attack on ‘The Playboy of the Western World,’ 1907, The

Ballad of Father Gilligan, The

Ballad of Father O’Hart, The

Ballad of Moll Magee, The

Ballad of the Foxhunter, The

Beggar to Beggar Cried

Blessed, The

Breasal the Fisherman

Cap and Bells, The

Cloak, the Boat, and the Shoes, The

Coat, A

Cold Heaven, The

Coming of Wisdom with Time, The

Consolation, The

Cradle Song, A [“The angels are stooping”]

Cradle Song, A [“The Danaan children laugh, in cradles of wrought gold”]

Death of Cuchulain, The

Dedication to a Book of Stories Selected from the Irish Novelists, The

Dolls, The

Down by the Salley Gardens

Dream of a Blessed Spirit, A

Dream of Death, A

Drinking Song, A

Ephemera

Everlasting Voices, The

Faery Song, A

Fallen Majesty

Falling of the Leaves, The

Fascination of What’s Difficult, The

Fergus and the Druid

Fiddler of Dooney, The

Folly of Being Comforted, The

Friends

Friend’s Illness, A

Grey Rock, The

Hanrahan Laments Because of His Wanderings

Hanrahan Reproves the Curlew

Hanrahan Speaks to the Lovers of His Songs in Coming Days

Heart of the Woman, The

His Dream

Hosting of the Sidhe, The

Host of the Air, The

Hour Before Dawn, The

Indian to His Love, The

Indian upon God, The

In the Seven Woods

Into the Twilight

King and No King

Lake Isle of Innisfree, The

Lamentation of the Old Pensioner, The

Lyric from an Unpublished Play, A

Madness of King Goll, The

Magi, The

Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland, The