William Butler Yeats

In The Seven Woods William Butler Yeats

Book Excerpt: ...the prowAnd waving white wings to and froAwaken wanderings of light airTo stir their coverlet and their hair. And poets found, old writers say, A yew tree where his body lay, But a wild apple hid the grassWith its sweet blossom where hers was; And being in good heart, becauseA better time had come againAfter the deaths of many men, And that long fighting at the ford, They wrote on tablets of thin board, Made of the apple and the yew, All the love stories that they knew. Let rush and bird cry out their fillOf the harper's daughter if they will, Beloved, I am not afraid of herShe is not wiser nor lovelier, And you are more high of heart than sheFor all her wanderings over-sea; But I'd have bird and rush forgetThose other two, for never yetHas lover lived but longed to wiveLike them that are no more alive. THE ARROW. I thought of your beauty and this arrowMad