Page:The Land of Heart's Desire, Yeats, 1894.djvu/50

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
42
THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE.

The Child.

Come, little bird with silver feet!


Shawn Bruin.

Dead, dead!


Father Hart.

Thus do the evil spirits snatch their prey
Almost out of the very hand of God;
And day by day their power is more and more,
And men and women leave old paths, for pride
Comes knocking with thin knuckles on the heart.


A Voice sings outside

The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away,
While the faeries dance in a place apart,
Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air;
For they hear the wind laugh and murmur and sing

Of a land where even the old are fair,