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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8) / The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars cover

The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8) / The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars

Chapter 39: First Musician.
By W. B. Yeats
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British LiteratureMythology, Legends & FolklorePlays/Films/DramasPoetry

About This Book

A trio of lyrical dramas blends mythic atmosphere, music, and symbolic action to examine encounters between ordinary households and supernatural visitors. One play stages desperate choices amid hunger and otherworldly temptation; another portrays the seductive promise of an enchanted life offered to a young couple; the third presents collaborative mythic tableaux that fuse folkloric motifs and poetic stagecraft. Throughout, ritual, song, and evocative imagery take precedence over realistic explanation, and themes of sacrifice, desire, mortality, and the tension between earthly duties and transcendent longing recur across compact, mood-driven scenes.

DEIRDRE. MUSICIANS’ SONG.—III. ALLGOOD.

DEIRDRE. MUSICIANS’ SONG.—III.

Sarah Allgood.

First Musician

They are gone:
They are gone; the proud may lie by the proud.

Second Musician

Though we are bidden to sing, cry nothing loud.

First Musician

They are gone, they are gone.

Second Musician

Whispering were enough.

First Musician.

Into the secret wilderness of their love.

Second Musician

A high grey cairn.
What more is to be said?

First Musician

Eagles have gone into their cloudy bed.