William Butler Yeats
Responsibilities, and other poems

THE YOUNG MAN'S SONG

 
I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough;'
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
 
 
Oh, love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away,
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.
 

THE HOUR-GLASS
NEW VERSION – 1912

THE HOUR-GLASS

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

 
Wise Man.
Bridget, his wife.
Teigue, a fool.
Angel.
Children and Pupils.
 

Pupils come in and stand before the stage curtain, which is still closed. One pupil carries a book

First Pupil

He said we might choose the subject for the lesson.

Second Pupil

There is none of us wise enough to do that.

Third Pupil

It would need a great deal of wisdom to know what it is we want to know.

Fourth Pupil

I will question him.

Fifth Pupil

You?

Fourth Pupil

Last night I dreamt that some one came and told me to question him. I was to say to him, 'You were wrong to say there is no God and no soul – maybe, if there is not much of either, there is yet some tatters, some tag on the wind – so to speak – some rag upon a bush, some bob-tail of a god.' I will argue with him, – nonsense though it be – according to my dream, and you will see how well I can argue, and what thoughts I have.

First Pupil

I'd as soon listen to dried peas in a bladder, as listen to your thoughts.

[Fool comes in.

Fool

Give me a penny.

Second Pupil

Let us choose a subject by chance. Here is his big book. Let us turn over the pages slowly. Let one of us put down his finger without looking. The passage his finger lights on will be the subject for the lesson.

Fool

Give me a penny.

Third Pupil

(Taking up book) How heavy it is.

Fourth Pupil

Spread it on Teigue's back, and then we can all stand round and see the choice.

Second Pupil

Make him spread out his arms.

Fourth Pupil

Down on your knees. Hunch up your back. Spread your arms out now, and look like a golden eagle in a church. Keep still, keep still.

Fool

Give me a penny.

Third Pupil

Is that the right cry for an eagle cock?

Second Pupil

I'll turn the pages – you close your eyes and put your finger down.

Third Pupil

That's it, and then he cannot blame us for the choice.

First Pupil

There, I have chosen. Fool, keep still – and if what's wise is strange and sounds like nonsense, we've made a good choice.

Fifth Pupil

The Master has come.

Fool

Will anybody give a penny to a fool?

[One of the pupils draws back the stage curtain showing the Master sitting at his desk. There is an hour-glass upon his desk or in a bracket on the wall. One pupil puts the book before him.

First Pupil

We have chosen the passage for the lesson, Master. 'There are two living countries, one visible and one invisible, and when it is summer there, it is winter here, and when it is November with us, it is lambing-time there.'

Wise Man

That passage, that passage! what mischief has there been since yesterday?

First Pupil

None, Master.

Wise Man

Oh yes, there has; some craziness has fallen from the wind, or risen from the graves of old men, and made you choose that subject.

Fourth Pupil

I knew that it was folly, but they would have it.

Third Pupil

Had we not better say we picked it by chance?

Second Pupil

No; he would say we were children still.

First Pupil

I have found a sentence under that one that says – as though to show it had a hidden meaning – a beggar wrote it upon the walls of Babylon.

Wise Man

Then find some beggar and ask him what it means, for I will have nothing to do with it.

Fourth Pupil

Come, Teigue, what is the old book's meaning when it says that there are sheep that drop their lambs in November?

Fool

To be sure – everybody knows, everybody in the world knows, when it is Spring with us, the trees are withering there, when it is Summer with us, the snow is falling there, and have I not myself heard the lambs that are there all bleating on a cold November day – to be sure, does not everybody with an intellect know that; and maybe when it's night with us, it is day with them, for many a time I have seen the roads lighted before me.

Wise Man

The beggar who wrote that on Babylon wall meant that there is a spiritual kingdom that cannot be seen or known till the faculties whereby we master the kingdom of this world wither away, like green things in winter. A monkish thought, the most mischievous thought that ever passed out of a man's mouth.

First Pupil

If he meant all that, I will take an oath that he was spindle-shanked, and cross-eyed, and had a lousy itching shoulder, and that his heart was crosser than his eyes, and that he wrote it out of malice.

Second Pupil

Let's come away and find a better subject.

Fourth Pupil

And maybe now you'll let me choose.

First Pupil

Come.

Wise Man

 
Were it but true 'twould alter everything
Until the stream of the world had changed its course,
And that and all our thoughts had run
Into some cloudy thunderous spring
They dream to be its source —
Aye, to some frenzy of the mind;
And all that we have done would be undone,
Our speculation but as the wind.
 

[A pause.

 
I have dreamed it twice.
 

First Pupil

 
Something has troubled him.
 

[Pupils go out.

Wise Man

 
Twice have I dreamed it in a morning dream,
Now nothing serves my pupils but to come
With a like thought. Reason is growing dim;
A moment more and Frenzy will beat his drum
And laugh aloud and scream;
And I must dance in the dream.
No, no, but it is like a hawk, a hawk of the air,
It has swooped down – and this swoop makes the third —
And what can I, but tremble like a bird?
 

Fool

Give me a penny.

Wise Man

That I should dream it twice, and after that, that they should pick it out.

Fool

Won't you give me a penny?

Wise Man

What do you want? What can it matter to you whether the words I am reading are wisdom or sheer folly?

Fool

Such a great, wise teacher will not refuse a penny to a fool.

Wise Man

Seeing that everybody is a fool when he is asleep and dreaming, why do you call me wise?

Fool

O, I know, – I know, I know what I have seen.

Wise Man

Well, to see rightly is the whole of wisdom, whatever dream be with us.

Fool

When I went by Kilcluan, where the bells used to be ringing at the break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach, where the young men used to be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the cross-roads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras, where the friars used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all these changes, they said it was no misfortune, but that it was the wisdom they had learned from your teaching.

Wise Man

And you too have called me wise – you would be paid for that good opinion doubtless – Run to the kitchen, my wife will give you food and drink.

Fool

That's foolish advice for a wise man to give.

Wise Man

Why, Fool?

Fool

What is eaten is gone – I want pennies for my bag. I must buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time the sun is weak, and snares to catch the rabbits and the hares, and a big pot to cook them in.

Wise Man

I have more to think about than giving pennies to your like, so run away.

Fool

Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. The fishermen let me sleep among their nets in the loft because I bring them luck; and in the summer time, the wild creatures let me sleep near their nests and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. If I was not lucky I would starve.

Wise Man

What are the shears for?

Fool

I won't tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away.

Wise Man

Drive them away! Who would I drive away?

Fool

I won't tell you.

Wise Man

Not if I give you a penny?

Fool

No.

Wise Man

Not if I give you two pennies?

Fool

You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won't tell you.

Wise Man

Three pennies?

Fool

Four, and I will tell you.

Wise Man

Very well – four, but from this out I will not call you Teigue the Fool.

Fool

Let me come close to you, where nobody will hear me; but first you must promise not to drive them away. (Wise Man nods.) Every day men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills, great black nets.

Wise Man

A strange place that to fish in.

Fool

They spread them out on the hills that they may catch the feet of the angels; but every morning just before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with the shears and the angels fly away.

Wise Man

(Speaking with excitement) Ah, now I know that you are Teigue the Fool. You say that I am wise, and yet I say, there are no angels.

Fool

I have seen plenty of angels.

Wise Man

No, no, you have not.

Fool

They are plenty if you but look about you. They are like the blades of grass.

Wise Man

They are plenty as the blades of grass – I heard that phrase when I was but a child and was told folly.

Fool

When one gets quiet. When one is so quiet that there is not a thought in one's head maybe, there is something that wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet, and then all in a minute one can smell summer flowers, and tall people go by, happy and laughing, but they will not let us look at their faces. Oh no, it is not right that we should look at their faces.

Wise Man

You have fallen asleep upon a hill, yet, even those that used to dream of angels dream now of other things.

Fool

I saw one but a moment ago – that is because I am lucky. It was coming behind me, but it was not laughing.

Wise Man

There's nothing but what men can see when they are awake. Nothing, nothing.

Fool

I knew you would drive them away.

Wise Man

 
Pardon me, Fool,
I had forgotten who I spoke to.
Well, there are your four pennies – Fool you are called,
And all day long they cry, 'Come hither, Fool.'
 

[The Fool goes close to him.

 
Or else it's, 'Fool, be gone.'
 

[The Fool goes further off.

 
Or, 'Fool, stand there.'
 

[The Fool straightens himself up.

 
Or, 'Fool, go sit in the corner.'
 

[The Fool sits in the corner.

 
And all the while
What were they all but fools before I came?
What are they now, but mirrors that seem men,
Because of my image? Fool, hold up your head.
 

[Fool does so.

 
What foolish stories they have told of the ghosts
That fumbled with the clothes upon the bed,
Or creaked and shuffled in the corridor,
Or else, if they were pious bred,
Of angels from the skies,
That coming through the door,
Or, it may be, standing there,
Would solidly out stare
The steadiest eyes with their unnatural eyes,
Aye, on a man's own floor.
 

[An angel has come in. It should be played by a man if a man can be found with the right voice, and may wear a little golden domino and a halo made of metal. Or the whole face may be a beautiful mask, in which case the last sentence on page 136 should not be spoken.

 
Yet it is strange, the strangest thing I have known,
That I should still be haunted by the notion
That there's a crisis of the spirit wherein
We get new sight, and that they know some trick
To turn our thoughts for their own ends to frenzy.
Why do you put your finger to your lip,
And creep away?
 

[Fool goes out.

 
(Wise Man sees Angel.) What are you? Who are you?
I think I saw some like you in my dreams,
When but a child. That thing about your head, —
That brightness in your hair – that flowery branch;
But I have done with dreams, I have done with dreams.
 

Angel

 
I am the crafty one that you have called.
 

Wise Man

 
How that I called?
 

Angel

 
I am the messenger.
 

Wise Man

 
What message could you bring to one like me?
 

Angel (turning the hour-glass)

 
That you will die when the last grain of sand
Has fallen through this glass.
 

Wise Man

 
I have a wife.
Children and pupils that I cannot leave:
Why must I die, my time is far away?
 

Angel

 
You have to die because no soul has passed
The heavenly threshold since you have opened school,
But grass grows there, and rust upon the hinge;
And they are lonely that must keep the watch.
 

Wise Man

 
And whither shall I go when I am dead?
 

Angel

 
You have denied there is a purgatory,
Therefore that gate is closed; you have denied
There is a heaven, and so that gate is closed.
 

Wise Man

 
Where then? For I have said there is no hell.
 

Angel

 
Hell is the place of those who have denied;
They find there what they planted and what dug,
A Lake of Spaces, and a Wood of Nothing,
And wander there and drift, and never cease
Wailing for substance.
 

Wise Man

 
Pardon me, blessed Angel,
I have denied and taught the like to others.
But how could I believe before my sight
Had come to me?
 

Angel

 
It is too late for pardon.
 

Wise Man

 
Had I but met your gaze as now I met it —
But how can you that live but where we go
In the uncertainty of dizzy dreams
Know why we doubt? Parting, sickness and death,
The rotting of the grass, tempest and drouth,
These are the messengers that came to me.
Why are you silent? You carry in your hands
God's pardon, and you will not give it me.
Why are you silent? Were I not afraid,
I'd kiss your hands – no, no, the hem of your dress.
 

Angel

 
Only when all the world has testified,
May soul confound it, crying out in joy,
And laughing on its lonely precipice.
What's dearth and death and sickness to the soul
That knows no virtue but itself? Nor could it,
So trembling with delight and mother-naked,
Live unabashed if the arguing world stood by.
 

Wise Man

 
It is as hard for you to understand
Why we have doubted, as it is for us
To banish doubt – what folly have I said?
There can be nothing that you do not know:
Give me a year – a month – a week – a day,
I would undo what I have done – an hour —
Give me until the sand has run in the glass.
 

Angel

 
Though you may not undo what you have done,
I have this power – if you but find one soul,
Before the sands have fallen, that still believes,
One fish to lie and spawn among the stones
Till the great fisher's net is full again,
You may, the purgatorial fire being passed,
Spring to your peace.
 

[Pupils sing in the distance.

 
'Who stole your wits away
And where are they gone?'
 

Wise Man

 
My pupils come,
Before you have begun to climb the sky
I shall have found that soul. They say they doubt,
But what their mothers dinned into their ears
Cannot have been so lightly rooted up;
Besides, I can disprove what I once proved —
And yet give me some thought, some argument,
More mighty than my own.
 

Angel

 
Farewell – farewell,
For I am weary of the weight of time.
 

[Angel goes out. Wise Man makes a step to follow and pauses. Some of his pupils come in at the other side of the stage.

First Pupil

 
Master, master, you must choose the subject.
 

[Enter other pupils with Fool, about whom they dance; all the pupils may have little cushions on which presently they seat themselves.

Second Pupil

 
Here is a subject – where have the Fool's wits gone? (singing)
'Who dragged your wits away
Where no one knows?
Or have they run off
On their own pair of shoes?'
 

Fool

Give me a penny.

First Pupil

 
The Master will find your wits,
 

Second Pupil

 
And when they are found, you must not beg for pennies.
 

Third Pupil

 
They are hidden somewhere in the badger's hole,
But you must carry an old candle end
If you would find them.