The Old Age Of Queen Maeve
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<strong>The Old Age Of Queen Maeve</strong><big>9９ｌｉb?</big>A certai in outlandish clothes
Gathered a crowd in some Byzantine lane,
Talked1 of his try and its people, sang
To some stringed instrument here had seen,
A wall behind his back, over his head
A latticed window. His glance went up at time
As though one listehere, and his voice sank
Or let its meaning mix into the strings.
MAEVE the great queen ag to and fro,
Between the walls covered with beaten bronze,
In her high house at Crua; the loh,
Flickering with ash and hazel, but half showed
Where the tired horse-boys lay upon the rushes,
Or on the benches underh the walls,
In fortable sleep; all living slept
But that great queen, who more than half the night
Had paced from door to fire and fire to door.
Though now in her old age, in her young age
She had beeiful in that old way
Thats all but gone; for the proud heart is gone,
And the fool heart of the ting-house fears all
But Soft beauty and i desire.
She could have called over the rim of the world
Whatever womans lover had hit her fancy,
A had bee-bodied and great-limbed,
Fashioo be the mother of strong children;
And shed had lucky eyes and high heart,
And wisdom that caught fire like the dried flax,
At need, and made her beautiful and fierce,
Sudden and laughing.
O u heart,
Why do you praise another, praising her,
As if there were no tale but your own tale
Worth knitting to a measure of sweet sound?
Have I<samp>９９lｉb?</samp> not bid you tell of that great queen
Who has been buried some two thousand years?
When night was at its deepest, a wild goose
Cried from the porters lodge, and with long clamour
Shook the ale-horns and shields upon their hooks;
But the horse-boys slept on, as though some power
Had filled the house with Druid heaviness;
And w who of the many-ging Sidhe
Had e as in the old times to sel her,
Maeve walked, yet with slow footfall, being old,
To that small chamber by the ate.
The porter slept, although he sat upright
With still and stony limbs and open eyes.
Maeve waited, and when that ear-pierg noise
Broke from his parted lips and broke again,
She laid a hand o<u>..</u>her of his shoulders,
And shook him wide awake, and bid him say
Who of the wandering many-ging ones
Had troubled his sleep. But all he had to say
Was that, the air being heavy and the dogs
More still than they had been food month,
He had fallen asleep, and, though he had dreamed
nothing,
He could remember when he had had fine dreams.
It was before the time of the great war
Over the White-Horned Bull and the Brown Bull.
She turned away; he turned again to sleep
That no god troubled now, and, w
What matters were afoot among the Sidhe,
Maeve walked through that great hall, and with a sigh
Lifted the curtain of her sleeping-room,
Remembering that she too had seemed divine
To many thousand eyes, and to her own
Ohat the geions had long waited
That work too difficult for mortal hands
Might be aplished, Bung the curtain up
She saw her husband Ailell sleeping there,
And thought of days when hed had a straight body,
And of that famous Fergus, Nessas husband,
Who had been the lover of her middle life.
Suddenly Ailell spoke out of his sleep,
And not with his own voice or a mans voice,
But with the burning, live, unshaken voice
Of those that, it may be, ever age.
He said, "High Queen of Crua and Magh Ai,
A king of the Great Plain would speak with you.
And with glad voice Maeve answered him, "What king
Of the far-wandering shadows has e to me,
As in the old days when they would e and go
About my threshold to sel and to help?
The parted lips replied, "I seek your help,
For I am Aengus, and I am crossed in love.
"How may a mortal whose life gutters out
Help them that wander with hand clasping hand,
Their haughty images that ot wither,
For all their beautys like a hollow dream,
Mirrored in streams that her hail nor rain
Nor the cold North has troubled?
He replied,
"I am from those rivers and I bid you call
The children of the Maines out of sleep,
Ahem digging under Buals hill.
We shadows, while they uproot his earthy housc,
Will overthrow his shadows and carry off
Caer, his blue-eyed daughter that I love.
I helped your fathers when they built these walls,
And I would have your help in my great need,
Queen of high Crua.
"I obey your will
With speedy feet and a most thankful heart:
For you have been, O Aengus of the birds,
iver of good sel and good luck.
And with a groan, as if the mortal breath
Could but awaken sadly upon lips
That happier breath had moved, her husband turned
Face downward, tossing in a troubled sleep;
But Maeve, and not with a slow feeble foot,
Came to the threshold of the painted house
Where her grandchildre, and cried aloud,
Until the pillared dark began to stir
With shouting and the g of unhooked arms.
She told them of the many-ging ones;
And all that night, and all through the day
To middle night, they dug into the hill.
At middle night great cats with silver claws,
Bodies of shadow and blind eyes like pearls,
Came up out of the hole, and red-eared hounds
With long white bodies came out of the air
Suddenly, and ran at them and harried them.
The Maines" children dropped their spades, and stood
With quaking joints and terror-stri faces,
Till Maeve called out, "These are but en.
The Maines children have not dropped their spades
Because Earth, crazy for its broken power,
Casts up a Show and the winds a
With holy shadows. Her high heart was glad,
And when the uproar ran along the grass
She followed with light footfall in the midst,
Till it died out where an old thorood.
Friend of these many years, you too had stood
With equal ce in that whirling rout;
For you, although youve not her wanderi,
Have all that greatness, and not hers alone,
For there is no high story about queens
In any a book but tells of you;
And when Ive heard how they grew old and died,
Or fell into unhappiness, Ive said,
"She will grow ol<s></s>d and die, and she has wept!
And when Id write it out ahe words,
Half crazy with the thought, She too has wept!
Outrun the measure.
Id tell of that great queen
Who stood amid a silence by the thorn
Until two lovers came out of the air
With bodies made out of soft fire. The one,
About whose face birds wagged their fiery wings,
Said, "Aengus and his sweetheart give their thanks
To Maeve and to Maeves household, owing all
In owing them the bride-bed that gives peace.
Then Maeve: "O Aengus, Master of all lovers,
A thousand years ago you held high ralk
With the first kings of many-pillared Crua.
O when will you grow weary?
They had vanished,
But our of the dark air over her head there came
A murmur of soft words aing lips.
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