Etain the Beloved and Other Poems Part 7

Come from behind those eyes, that I may see Thyself, beloved! not lip, or hand, or brain.

These are not thou. These are the servile train That crowd me from thine inmost mystery.

Show me thy naked soul!... or it may be That, lacking this, I shall, in Love's mad strain, Shatter the form, and sift it grain by grain To find thine utter Self--thee--very Thee!...

Ah! Love, forgive!... Be this my penitence That in my pa.s.sion I have glimpsed the goal Of all calamity, and surely scanned In flood and flame, earthquake and pestilence, Love raging forth, to find Love's inmost soul, With bridal gifts in Ruin's awful hand!

ENVOY

_THE LOVING CUP_

_I_

_I raise to you, O Queen, this Loving Cup, this Mether, Filled with Mead Made from honey of the heather, Brought by many a humming wing, And with water from the spring; Mixed by cunning hands together In a foamy ferment Thou would lead Sullen tongues to song, If along Harpstrings now a rousing air went._

_II_

_But in this our souls' espousal Axe nor skeen Throb and bleed For the spear-clash of carousal, Spoils of slaughter Ravening: No, for peace has mixed our mether, With its Mead, O my Queen, Made from honey of the heather, And with water From the spring._

_III_

_Ah! but what avail Song and ale, If beneath our quaffing Moves not something deeper than our laughing?_

_IV_

_So to you, O Queen, Here with hands unseen I raise my Heart's deep Mether, Where together, Sweetness brought on Fancy's wing From the flowers Of happy hours, And a draught from Thought's cool spring, Blend in song's melodious ferment, With an undertone Caught in deeper hours alone, When along Life's solemn harp the Spirit's air went._

NOTES

_Etain the Beloved_:--This poem is founded on an ancient Irish myth. It is not a translation from the Gaelic; but rather is an attempt at transfiguration, by seeking to "unfold into light" the spiritual vision that was the inspiration, and is the secret of the persistence and resilience, of the Celt. Such modifications as I have made in the story have neither archaeological nor philological significance: they arise entirely from whatever measure of insight into artistic necessity, on the side of pure literature, has been granted to me; and also from obedience to a view of the universe which is embodied in the ancient Irish mythology, and whose operations the personages of the story body forth as Psyche bodied forth the soul of humanity to the Greek.

The names of the personages may be p.r.o.nounced thus: Etain--Etawn', Eochaidh--Yo'hee, Ailill--Al'yil, Mider--Mid'yir.

Dagda is the Irish G.o.d of Day, Balor the Irish G.o.d of Night.

A dun is a fortified dwelling, a liss is a place for domestic animals.

_Death and Life_:--On Friday, August 13, 1909, the author went by currach from Dunquin to the Great Blasket Island, Kerry, to visit Miss Eveleen Nicolls, M.A., who was spending a holiday on the island. Instead of joining her, as was intended, in music and conversation amongst the islanders, he had to partic.i.p.ate in an endeavour, alas! unsuccessful, to restore her to life. She had been bathing with a fisher-girl. The latter got into difficulties in the strong Atlantic current, and an effort by Miss Nicolls to save the girl ended in the heroic sacrifice of her own life.

_A Schoolboy plays Cuchulain_:--Cuchulain, the supreme hero of Celtic romance, who, single-handed, defended his province against the army of Queen Maeve. Maeve had chosen for a foray the time when the Ulster chiefs lay in weakness under a curse by the warrior G.o.ddess, Macha.

_Hospitality_: _The Student_:--Put into verse from the literal translations of Kuno Meyer in "Ancient Irish Poetry."

_To One in Prison_: _A Home-coming_:--Occasioned by the imprisonment of the author's wife for taking part in the active movement for the political enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.