The Crier By Night Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB C DEAD A E AD AAFDGAAAHAID AJAKLADMALDANAFA AOP AA ADIIAQR AD ST D AU AV AR AA AW A D AIIID IIID IXID Y IAM L FZD IZDA2IB2I IIC2ID2E2IIRLF2LI ILLIG2H2I II III2IIJ2I K2 IL2 IILLIEIDIIM2IK2ID N2 E2 I I IIEI IDZIO2 ILLLL LIE LL L I D P2 I Q2 L R2D D I S2 ID D LD LE2 T2AU2R2IT2L DILLV2F LLZL LILW2LL LI IL X2 LY2 T2LD L LL L Y2L Z2 ID LL II ID LL LL LD LL M2K2ILL LLILIDIDZ2LLILDL M2D I L L L LM2LI LLL XM2 LI LA3M2ILLIM2DL LX LID D L I L IDDW2LDB3LIILLIEEIIL M2ILDLL L C3DC3DD D3ID3II DC3 DL ZIDIDDD D DL DI I L LDD IIL E3 IF3ILLILB3B3LZDM2LDL LDLL L IIC3ZILLIEZLK2M2I DM2 LLI DDLIE L DL S2 LLIL IL LZ L L DD DJ DL DIDC3 LIM2 DD O2L L DID L LZZ2Z M2LM2DLD3J2 L LC3 LEID ID3 DD LL I ID LD Z2 C3L I L L LXL IO2 I LLK2K2 Z M2M2L L ZG3L LLV2O2 ID LLL M2DL DO2 LLM2 M2 LD M2L L LIEM2A3 D DILZLII L LDLF3ID DIILLM2 ZK2ZM2LEL I DM2L I LK2ID LI2DDDILLL I DLILLDLL I M2IDL L D IIIIIDM2ZLEM2M2M2LM2 DM2TK2LLIIILTO2DEDDL H2IIWM2ILDL M2 LLM2I L LD D L ID L I

TO	A
MY DEAR SCRIBE	B
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	-
PERSONS	C
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HIALTI a Northman	D
THORGERD His Wife	E
BLANID an Irish Bondmaid	A
AN OLD STRANGE MAN	D
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	-
	-
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THE CRIER BY NIGHT	A
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The scene is the interior of a cottage near a misty mere and among unseen mountains on a wild night of late Autumn In the back wall area door to the left and a long low window in the middle the latter is shuttered on the outside and on door and window the wind driven rain rattles In the middle of the left hand wall a door leads into an outhouse near it is a loom toward the front of the right hand wall another door leads to a sleeping chamber a settle extends along this wall and in front of it a long table is set Two rushlights burn on the table A round hearth is in the middle of the house its smoke rises into a luffer which hangs from the thatched roof between two beams The floor is thickly strewn with rushes There are several wooden stools about the hearth on one of which HIALTI is sitting mending harness THORGERD is standing near the loom spinning with a distaff	E
	-
HIALTI	A
The lass is late about where is she now	D
	-
THORGERD	A
Let the lass be What is the lass to you	A
She is my lass to handle as I will	F
My father gave her to me for my own	D
And so I use her as I use my gear	G
She will not last say you Well what of that	A
I know gear must wear out being well used	A
Shoes must be trodden under foot all day	A
Though in the mire they go and to the mire	H
The hearth fire wastes the irons used to tend it	A
I am the huswife leave the house to me	I
And buy me new gear when the old is rotten	D
	-
HIALTI	A
You drive her over hard In the cold dark	J
Hours ere the thin late dawn she was afoot	A
And she has been afoot each moment since	K
The butter will not come now without fire	L
But I was wakened in the frosty night	A
By the slow moaning of her weary churn	D
And when I rose she stood here without shoes	M
She said you took them from her so I sought	A
And gave her them again and lit the fire	L
She dare not sleep with half your tasks undone	D
But you slept and your sleep was all her rest	A
Yet in her land 'tis you would be the thrall	N
You shut the hens in from the storm all day	A
But she must trudge with peat mull in a swill	F
Up from the water side and down all day	A
	-
THORGERD	A
Spare her and have my firing spoilt Not I	O
Had it been sodden how could you light her fires	P
	-
HIALTI	A
You drive her over hard	A
	-
THORGERD What is it to you	A
Fodder and yoke your neats see to your swine	D
Put them to breed and leave my stock to me	I
If this is over hard what will it be	I
Last week she still could smile sometimes so yet	A
She smiles too often for my happiness	Q
What money did the calves fetch at the fair	R
	-
HIALTI	A
Where is she now	D
	-
THORGERD What money did the calves	S
Fetch at the fair last week	T
	-
HIALTI Where is she now	D
	-
THORGERD	A
I spilt the water she must needs draw more	U
	-
HIALTI	A
The roof drip at the door would fill her pails	V
	-
THORGERD	A
What money did the calves fetch at the fair	R
	-
HIALTI	A
You need not ask you had it all to hoard	A
	-
THORGERD	A
You kept some back who bought them	W
	-
HIALTI He who paid	A
	-
The outside door opens and as the rain drives in BLANID enters carrying two pails of water by a yoke Her short sleeved frayed hempen smock is dripping wet an old cart strap is buckled about her middle her ankles are bare but her feet are covered by shapeless brogues her matted hair is cut short and she has an iron collar about her neck She sets down her pails and with difficulty shuts and bolts the door against the wind Then she carries her pails into the outhouse as she moves about within she is heard to sing to a tired monotonous tune	D
	-
BLANID	A
The bird in my heart's a calling through a far fled tear grey sea	I
To the soft slow hills that cherish dim waters weary for me	I
Where the folk of rath and dun trail homeward silently	I
In the mist of the early night fall that drips from their hair like rain	D
	-
The bird in my heart's a flutter for the bitter wind of the sea	I
Shivers with thyme and woodbine as my body with memory	I
I feel their perfumes ooze in my ears like melody	I
The scent of the mead at the harping I shall not hear again	D
	-
The bird in my heart's a sinking to a hushed vale hid in the sea	I
Where the moonlit dew o'er dead fighters is stirred by the feet of the Shee	X
Who are lovely and old as the earth but younger than I can be	I
Who have known the forgetting of dying to a life one lonely pain	D
	-
She returns from the outhouse	Y
	-
THORGERD	I
Come here give me your shoes quickly I say	A
Why must you go shod softly Give me your shoes	M
	-
She takes them and puts them on the fire	L
	-
Is there some joy so deep within you still	F
That I have missed it though 'tis bright for singing	Z
It shall not be so long sing while you can	D
	-
BLANID	I
No joy ever sank deep enough for singing	Z
Trouble and all the sorrowful ways of men	D
Must stir the sad unrest that ends in song	A2
Joy seeks but peace and silence and still thought	I
But those who cannot weep must sing for ease	B2
And in the sound forget the thought that smote it	I
	-
THORGERD	I
I am made glad hearing your misery	I
Yet all the shapeless creeping shivering sounds	C2
You wail about the house will make me share it	I
Your songs of fa ry and nameless kings	D2
And things that never happened long ago	E2
And an unknown impossible shadowy land	I
Are useless as the starlight after moonset	I
That will not light men homeward from the fair	R
Nay useless as its melting down thin water	L
If you must sing sing truth to gut strong tunes	F2
Of Gunnar or of Freya or Andvari	L
Vineland the Good and the old Western sea	I
	-
BLANID	I
Things need not happen that they may be true	L
Although impossible they may be true	L
The things that matter happen in the heart	I
All earthly truth is true but for a time	G2
Whilst ages may be altered by one dream	H2
The things that matter happen in the heart	I
	-
THORGERD	I
Useless as starlight or the aimless wind	I
	-
BLANID	I
The wind is all the souls of those sad dead	I
Who will not stay in Heaven for love of earth	I2
Hither and thither they surge to find the gate	I
They see and know not on its new strange side	I
For they have learned too much to be let back	J2
Ah some have learned too much before they die	I
	-
As she crosses the house at the back HIALTI turns and catching her hands in his draws her toward him	K2
	-
HIALTI	I
Is it too hard the thought of that lost vale	L2
	-
BLANID	I
It is too hard because I must so love it	I
That were I free I should go there no more	L
Lest I should hate it I must always suffer	L
I only suffer this way rather than that	I
'Tis the eternal suffering of love	E
Must search me somehow with love's pitilessness	I
To make me know all souls what matter how	D
O I am but a troubled dream of God's	I
And even His will can alter not His dreams	I
Yea He is dreaming me a little while	M2
I must be dreamed out to the hardest end	I
Returning then to be unknown in Him	K2
I shall be Him again when He awakes	I
Ah God awake and so forget me soon	D
	-
THORGERD swinging her aside by the collar on her neck	N2
	-
Set on the water for the porridge go	E2
	-
BLANID goes into the outhouse THORGERD continues to HIALTI	I
	-
Why must you hold her hands and hold her eyes	I
	-
HIALTI	I
Under each dark grey lash a long tear slid	I
Like rain in a wild rose's shadowy curve	E
Bowed in the wind about the morning twilight	I
	-
THORGERD	I
Have done I know you left the fair at noon	D
To reach the copse just at the young moon's setting	Z
I could not find her till i' the night hid copse	I
A woman's voice sobbed If he would but come	O2
	-
HIALTI	I
It is not true you know it is not true	L
Let her alone you know that I must love you	L
And if she loves me she will know it too	L
And hurt herself far more than you can hurt her	L
	-
THORGERD	L
I hear you say it and afterward Perhaps	I
My little shears are sharp as any knife	E
	-
HIALTI	L
You would not kill her	L
	-
THORGERD When have I grown kind hearted	L
	-
She lays her hand on his shoulder and leaning her mouth to his ear speaks in a low distinct voice	I
	-
Slit nose and lip and where's her beauty then	D
	-
He starts from his stool	P2
	-
Nay are my kinsfolk as far off as hers	I
	-
He turns away as BLANID enters with an iron pot which she hangs from a hook over the fire and a pitcher of milk which she sets on the table	Q2
	-
THORGERD takes the pot from the fire	L
	-
Here's too much water it will never boil	R2
And if it did the mess would be too thin	D
	-
She pours water from the pot upon the floor then hangs the pot over the fire again	D
	-
Set out the bowls and finger not their lips	I
	-
BLANID goes again to the outhouse and returning sets three bowls with spoons on the table and a jar of meal by the hearth	S2
	-
Though porridge needs meal you shall not think for me	I
Do nought until I bid you once The grain	D
	-
BLANID goes yet again to the outhouse and returns with a bag of grain	D
	-
You know what grain is for why do you stand	L
Your feet are mine Down to the quern Get down	D
	-
BLANID	L
There's meal in plenty for to morrow	E2
	-
THORGERD laying down her distaff to make porridge	T2
Ay	A
But is there meal in plenty for next month	U2
You may be dead then therefore you must toil	R2
That I may need to do no aching tasks	I
Until my man can buy another drudge	T2
From the next herd for so we shall forget you	L
	-
BLANID kneeling by the quern between the window and the door and commencing to grind grain	D
You hate me far too subtly to forget me	I
There is not enough kindness in your heart	L
To let you thus forego your joy of hate	L
Then too despite the accident of death	V2
I cannot go from here against my will	F
	-
THORGERD	L
You shall not die ere I have done with you	L
And death shall only come by suffering	Z
Until you are too feeble even to suffer	L
	-
BLANID	L
The sound of death is ever in mine ears	I
Monotonous as the night's infinity	L
Wherein I was once born where salt winds sweep	W2
The wailing of the waters of the West	L
I die but you can ne'er have done with me	L
	-
THORGERD the porridge being made	L
Come drudge lift off the pot and fill the bowls	I
	-
BLANID having filled two bowls	I
The pot is empty	L
	-
THORGERD But the bowls are full	X2
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HIALTI	L
Now give the lass some supper fill her bowl	Y2
	-
THORGERD pouring milk over the porridge	T2
There's but enough for two I'll make no more	L
Here take the pot and scrape it at the quern	D
	-
HIALTI and THORGERD draw stools to the table BLANID carries the pot to the outhouse and returns to the quern supper proceeds in silence for a few moments then HIALTI rises and offers his bowl to BLANID	L
	-
HIALTI	L
Share with me lass I need no more to night	L
	-
Before BLANID can taste the porridge THORGERD strikes the bowl from her hand	L
	-
HIALTI indignantly as he reaches to THORGERD'S bowl	Y2
She shall have yours go you and make us more	L
	-
He is interrupted by a distant wailing which is heard through the storm	Z2
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THE VOICE	I
Ohey Ohey Ohohey	D
	-
BLANID	L
Master I hear one calling in the night	L
	-
HIALTI in a subdued voice	I
It is the wind across the chimney slates	I
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THE VOICE	I
Ohey Ohohey	D
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BLANID	L
Master a man is calling in the night	L
	-
HIALTI	L
An owl storm beaten drowns down the long mere	L
	-
THE VOICE sounding nearer on a gust of wind	L
Ohohey Ohohey	D
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BLANID	L
Master one lost is helpless in the night	L
	-
THORGERD gently and with an eager smile	M2
Ay lass good lass go lass and seek for him	K2
Maybe he sinks amid the marshy reeds	I
Bring him to warmth and supper and a bed	L
I'll shut the door the light will only daze you	L
	-
HIALTI leaping to the door in front of BLANID and setting his back to it	L
No no back girl get back To THORGERD	L
You murderess	I
You know it is the Crier of the Ford	L
Who wakens when the clashing waters rise	I
And the thick night is choked with level rain	D
He is not seen he was not born he gathers	I
His bodiless being from the treacherous tarn	D
His aged crying gropes about the storm	Z2
To snare the spent wayfarer to the ford	L
Or draw some pitiful helper to the ford	L
And drown them where the unknown water swirls	I
And strangle them with long brown water weed	L
He seeks their souls for his old soul to feed on	D
Because it has no body to nourish it	L
	-
THORGERD hastily yet sullenly	M2
How should I know	D
	-
She grips BLANID'S shoulder and hurries her to the outhouse	I
	-
Get in with you to your straw	L
	-
She thrusts her into the outhouse and shuts the door upon her then she turns to HIALTI	L
	-
Fool now I know you love her behind your heart	L
	-
HIALTI	L
I have no mind to waste a half spent thrall	M2
To prove I love you and to buy another	L
Would need more money than eight red polled stirks	I
	-
THORGERD	L
Choose between her and me if you take her	L
I take the land	L
	-
HIALTI I love you overmuch	X
To set you equally against a thrall	M2
	-
THORGERD	L
What do I touch you when I touch your fields	I
	-
HIALTI	L
To morrow I must drive the sold ewes home	A3
And lead more bedding from the bracken fell	M2
If the storm clears it is well stacked and dry	I
So we must be a stirring by lantern light	L
Since now you will not have the lass go with me	L
To milk but go yourself although three cows	I
Will not let down their milk to you at all	M2
You drag their teats so waking time comes soon	D
Best get to bed	L
	-
THORGERD	L
And leave you to go to your straw's wench	X
	-
HIALTI taking a rushlight in his hand	L
Here are enough of your unfaithful words	I
I'll alter this to morrow	D
	-
THORGERD Ay to morrow	D
	-
HIALTI enters the sleeping chamber after watching the door close upon him THORGERD her hands clenched and her arms rigid swiftly steps half way toward the outhouse then suddenly relaxing into a pause and smiling with tight lips as she shakes her head slightly and sharply she turns to the table again doffs her coif and draws her hair down blows out the remaining rushlight and follows HIALTI into the sleeping chamber	L
	-
Henceforth the cottage is only lit by the ever dying fire A long empty silence ensues broken only by the tumult of the storm and the tinkle of the sinking embers	I
	-
Then the outhouse door opens slowly and from it BLANID steps listeningly across the house in front of the hearth to the door of the sleeping chamber remaining there for a little time with her ear against the door boards then she returns noiselessly across the house behind the hearth pausing near the house door	L
	-
BLANID in a hushed voice	I
If day were only darkness melting down	D
From darkness into darkness like this rain	D
Lost ere 'tis known then I might always sleep	W2
And sleep and dream I was a queen once more	L
She does not know I was a jewelled queen	D
For so I spoil her of new heights of joy	B3
In which she might for haughtiness fondle me	L
O I would sleep in that old Crier's arms	I
Enduring silence harder than all else	I
A mote shut into one cold kneaded eyelid	L
Of the dead mere and dream into the wind	L
And cling to stars lest I should slip through space	I
And dream I am the body of him I love	E
Who yields me only kindness never love	E
O me that misery of hopeless kindness	I
But I'll not die and leave him to her lips	I
Though I can never have him she shall not	L
For I can use this body worn to a soul	M2
To barter with that Crier of hidden things	I
That if he tangles him in his chill hair	L
Then I will follow and follow and follow and follow	D
Past where the imaged stars ebb past their light	L
And turn to water under the dark world	L
	-
She goes out into the storm leaving the door open behind her Presently she is heard singing to a chant like ever falling melody	L
	-
I stand in the sick night whose hid shape is my own shape	C3
As dazed life in the flickering hearts of old men	D
I think like a lean heron with bald head and frayed nape	C3
Motionlessly moulting in a flat pool of a grey fen	D
Whose sleep blinked horny eyes know it can ne'er moult again	D
	-
My age long cry droops in the hoar unseen stars that shake	D3
Until their discordant rays make darkness inside the sky	I
My bare cry shivers along the slimy rushes of the drowned lake	D3
Weariful waters do you hear a soul's hair tingling your veiled feet nigh	I
I stand outside my keen body yearning into you as I cry	I
	-
HIALTI within	D
Is that the lass sobbing a song in sleep	C3
	-
THORGERD within	D
The wind the wind and so as much as she	L
	-
BLANID still out of doors singing	Z
Old father of many waters can you feel my soul touching yours	I
I know that to greet your calling leaves me no more any yea or nay	D
Yet I too am of kin with lost woods and sedgy shores	I
So come secret as your black wind and take the dark core of my heart away	D
Ere you beget me on death to be still born to an unlit day	D
Ohey Ohey Ohohey	D
	-
THE VOICE Ohohey Ohey	D
	-
HIALTI within	D
Is there a woman's voice inside the wind	L
	-
THORGERD within	D
the unclean Crier croaking cover your ears	I
	-
BLANID re enters the house hurriedly she shuts and bolts the door hardly knowing what she does she falls on her knees with her back to the door breathing quickly and hard and swaying backward and forward her face hid in her hands	I
	-
Again and again a terrible blast of wind strains at the unyielding door	L
	-
THE VOICE close at hand	L
Open open I cannot open open	D
I cannot come to you unless you open	D
	-
BLANID muttering behind her hands	I
I will not go I can do nothing else	I
It shall not enter O it is in my heart	L
	-
She totters fearfully to the door after many hesitant backward glances and opens it slowly and as if she had never known how to open it She reels against the wall and stands there motionlessly clutching it with flat hands and outspread arms as a stooping figure swathed in a rain coloured rain soaked cloak and deep hood enters Wisps of white hair flutter in the mouth of the hood and one flicker of the fire light shows in its depths a soft shrunken beardless face with an almost lipless sunken mouth	E3
	-
THIS OLD STRANGE MAN speaking always in a low even mournful voice	I
A spirit calling in an old old tongue	F3
Forgotten in lost graves in lonesome places	I
A spirit huddled in an old old heart	L
Like a blind crone crouched o'er a long dead fire	L
A spirit shrinking in the old old hills	I
Dreading to step down water or hollow night	L
Some seek me dreaming one last hope of joy	B3
Some have been made too wise by too much joy	B3
And seek me longing for deeper misery	L
Knowing that joy is weary in unending	Z
Changeless and one and easy in low perfection	D
While misery has as many shapes as evil	M2
That all must learn and is made new for ever	L
By fear of pain desired for love of passion	D
But feel O you who call me through the night	L
I bring you neither joy nor misery	L
But only rest so slow and sad and sodden	D
You will not know of it you shall only rest	L
And lose your soul in my soul evermore	L
	-
Sounds of heavy breathing are heard from the sleeping chamber during his speaking He is continually reaching to BLANID with his muffled unseen hands but she holds them from her as continually	L
	-
BLANID always in an eager suppressed voice	I
I have known joy I know not what it was	I
Mead fumes that filled me cooling to one drop	C3
I have known misery a self numbed sting	Z
That showed me but another joy to lose	I
These were too small I will have only rest	L
And lose my soul in your soul evermore	L
But if I die into your drooping limbs	I
I must be mingled there with him I love	E
You may not reach him by your hoary crying	Z
But raise some human wail for help and light	L
And he will come and I must follow him	K2
Past where the imaged moon shakes like a soul	M2
Pausing in death between two unknown worlds	I
	-
THE OLD MAN	D
A sign a plighting and I do your will	M2
	-
BLANID winding her arms about his arms from one side so that	L
he cannot touch her and burying her face in his hood	L
Kisses 'Hast drained my soul's blood in each kiss	I
	-
THE OLD MAN	D
I go I go make me not come again	D
For I am in you you must melt to me	L
Past where the imaged dark shuts bending lovers'	I
Close unseen imaged faces within life	E
	-
Keeping his face turned toward BLANID he recedes to the door where he ceases to be seen in the wind that scurries past	L
	-
THE VOICE immediately and far away	D
Help help the marsh lights 'wilder us A light	L
	-
BLANID shuts the door The fire has now sunk so low that as she crosses the house she is only visible in the half dark as a dim shape She pauses by the hearth	S2
	-
BLANID	L
Nay but I touch toward my joy at last	L
And Christ and all His Saints go out like candles	I
When mass is said and the priest's cup is wiped	L
	-
THE VOICE	I
The water laps our waists Help help A light	L
	-
BLANID running to the sleeping chamber door	L
Master I hear a calling	Z
	-
After an interval she strikes the door crying loudly	L
	-
Master Master	L
	-
HIALTI within	D
Has the flood washed into the shippon	D
	-
BLANID Nay	D
There is a pitiful shrieking in the dark	J
	-
HIALTI within	D
It is the Crier break sleep no more for that	L
	-
THORGERD within	D
The ox goad shall reward you when dawn comes	I
Wake us once more and you shall waken often	D
Ay very often until you dread to sleep	C3
	-
BLANID	L
I heard that trailing cry like maddened fir boughs	I
Now I hear words is there a woman's wail	M2
	-
THORGERD within	D
A woman Let her drown	D
	-
HIALTI within I come I come	O2
Reach down the lantern and light it light it light it	L
	-
Standing on a stool BLANID lifts a lantern from a nail in one of the beams and carrying it to the hearth kneels there and seeks to light it with an ember	L
	-
THORGERD within	D
You shall not go it is a lie of hers	I
You shall not go	D
	-
A brief struggle in the sleeping chamber is heard	L
	-
HIALTI within So stand you from the door	L
Get donned make up the fire have water boiling	Z
And send the wench to lie in your warm form	Z2
Ready to cherish what stiffening thing I bring	Z
	-
BLANID to herself lighting the lantern and smiling mischievously	M2
Yea I shall cherish a stiffening thing for her	L
Lantern you are as dim as a little soul	M2
Yet the least soul can light a man to Heaven	D
And you might lead him home but I am like God	L
Who makes souls from His aches I will not ache	D3
You shall not have a soul I suck it back	J2
	-
She extinguishes the light HIALTI hurries in half dressed	L
	-
HIALTI	L
Canst find a rope	C3
	-
BLANID pointing Behind the settle there	L
To herself	E
'Tis a good rope and has two rotten strands	I
'Twas meant to make good tinder on the morrow	D
	-
THE VOICE	I
Help help A light Come for the woman's sake	D3
	-
HIALTI holding out his hand for the lantern	D
Hearken and haste give me the lantern now	D
	-
BLANID	L
Master it will not light	L
	-
HIALTI Will the storm pause	I
	-
THE VOICE	I
Ohohey Ohohey	D
	-
HIALTI	L
Will that dark Crier linger I must go	D
	-
She catches his outstretched hand and kisses it ere snatching it away he flings the house door wide open and dashes outside Soon the sound of his footsteps is lost in the storm	Z2
	-
BLANID relighting the lantern and starting up	C3
Master Master the light	L
	-
Pausing and sending the lantern crashing on the hearth with both hands	I
	-
He shall not have it	L
	-
She stands with her hands gripping her breasts leaning forward toward the open door her breathlessness is all that is heard she stretches her arms to the night	L
	-
BLANID	L
I feel as if my long long hands could reach	X
Down to the water's heart to pluck him from it	L
	-
THE VOICE	I
Will no one ever come	O2
	-
HIALTI out of doors I come I am nigh	I
	-
BLANID	L
Ay he is nigh but soon he will be far	L
I dare not thus fall through the world for him	K2
O I shall hear him do not let me hear him	K2
	-
She throws herself on her face on the floor and covering her head with the strewn rushes and clasping her hands over them lies there moaning	Z
	-
HIALTI far off shouting ever more madly	M2
Thorgerd Thorgerd your hands the world slips past me	M2
Save under under under	L
Aa h	-
	-
The shouting ceases suddenly at its height	L
	-
BLANID muffled and choking	Z
Her name her name why did he not think my name	G3
But she has lost him and I kissed his hand	L
	-
THORGERD rushing from the sleeping chamber in her night gear	L
Where is the wench Make haste another light	L
I heard him dying O this prater's breath	V2
Will blow his life out Kindle a light and come	O2
	-
THE VOICE	I
Ohey Ohohey Ohey	D
	-
BLANID	L
Nay Nay Nay I dare not I dare not	L
That Crier will drown me too	L
	-
THORGERD That is nought to me	M2
Get to your feet What shall I seek a way	D
To supple you	L
	-
BLANID O do not hurt me again	D
He dies it is my deed I dare not come	O2
	-
THORGERD	L
You are too mean to stir his life one thought	L
It was the Crafty Crier I heard that wail	M2
	-
The fire is now wholly out so that the cottage is absolutely dark and nothing is visible	M2
	-
THE VOICE near at hand	L
Ohohey Ohey	D
	-
THORGERD fiercely	M2
Where are you O the Crier is heaving o'er	L
	-
A gust of wind and rain is heard to sweep into the cottage through the open doorway shifting the rustling floor rushes as though feet touched them THE OLD STRANGE MAN has entered	L
	-
BLANID being heard to start to her feet	L
There is another breathing in the house	I
He is here this darkness is not black enough	E
The darkness at light's core alone could hide me	M2
Grope for my hand hold fast and take me home	A3
	-
She is heard to sink to the floor again	D
	-
THE OLD STRANGE MAN	D
Sister of that old race dead in the hills	I
Why will you make me come to you once more	L
You know you must go down a long withdrawing	Z
To reach the unlit places of your heart	L
Which are the night within my unknown eyes	I
Beyond all stars so let me touch you once	I
	-
BLANID is heard to drag her prostrate body through the rushes toward THORGERD	L
	-
BLANID	L
Mistress I am your thrall you will keep your own	D
I clasp your feet I kiss your clutching feet	L
I lick your feet all over with my tongue	F3
I will tell you somewhat that will yield a vengeance	I
For you to work so do not let me go	D
	-
THE OLD MAN	D
I see you you white terror with shaking flanks	I
Straining to feel me with your hard shut eyes	I
But now I need you not not yet not yet	L
Your man is drowned and this is it who bargained	L
Its death for his will you not give it to me	M2
	-
THORGERD laughing	Z
I am glad he is dead now I may only love him	K2
And know no more that last distress of stooping	Z
So far from me as this at my feet must be	M2
No vengeancing could pay for thoughts of her	L
I will not know that such can be in life	E
So I will neither yield nor succour her	L
	-
She speaks no more nor moves	I
	-
THE OLD MAN	D
Give it to me it is mine give it to me	M2
I cannot take it while it touches you	L
	-
A silence	I
	-
BLANID	L
I have slain him and I fear to go to him	K2
Put out my eyes and rope me with the dogs	I
Nay strangle me to morrow but save me now	D
	-
	-
THE OLD MAN his voice growing fainter and fainter	L
Ah come you daughter of an ancient earth	I2
Come down among the folk your heart can know	D
You darling of the past you long dead queen	D
Your aged soul is strange among these men	D
As strange as it would be in Paradise	I
But once I knew you ere you were begot	L
And in the unchanging silence of my heart	L
There waits a star for you to finish it	L
	-
A silence	I
	-
You little trembler of a dew drop dawn	D
You are as old as water that makes new dew	L
And when the dew falls it runs down to peace	I
The end of sorrow is in sorrow's heart	L
With those who loved and knew the unknown end	L
Of mothering you a thousand years ago	D
Come then from her who shapes new pangs for you	L
And rest and rest and rest for evermore	L
	-
A silence	I
	-
One day you will awake and call to me	M2
And I shall listen for the doubting cry	I
Until the stars have worn the sky too thin	D
And I am drowned within the light beyond	L
	-
His voice is lost in the gradual wail of a gust of wind then it is heard outside and afar	L
	-
Ohey	D
	-
BLANID speaking at longer and longer intervals	I
O you have saved me from such evil things	I
As writhed like tangled tree roots outside space	I
Ere God made Himself from them and for this	I
My Virgin shall reach down from God's two knees	I
Whereon She sits and kiss you for Her own	D
My body was yours now you have saved my soul	M2
My soul is utterly yours to serve in living	Z
To clothe your soul and be your very heart	L
In love and soft unconscious giving of life	E
Mother I have done evil punish me	M2
Because we loved him love me and punish me	M2
I have sinned I have parted lovers be cruel to me	M2
And cleanse me that I may keep near you two	L
Think in how many ways you can torture me	M2
Let me rake up the fire and heat an iron	D
For you to have your will upon my body	M2
One thigh is yet unseared Will you not speak	T
I love him I tell you I love him I love him I love him	K2
I kissed his hand do you hear I kissed his hand	L
Our Hialti's hand I'll make you hurt me yet	L
Cold anger is shuddering down your tense thighs	I
Feel this is your foot upon my upturned face	I
I lift it across my eyes wide open eyes	I
Bear down and crush them full of eternal night	L
Speak to me now O will you never speak	T
You thrust me down into that Crier's bosom	O2
For in your heart you make me be unborn	D
Within a lonely place you never heard of	E
Yet if I loose your feet he will return	D
And I must follow and follow and follow and follow	D
Past where my imaged thoughts repeat the world	L
Till shattered waters break the imaged dream	H2
You saved me once will you undo that greatness	I
We are the tears that God wipes from His eyes	I
Lone thoughts will thrust me forth save me from them	W
Ah but my lonely love can succour me	M2
Think if I drown 'tis to my Hialti's arms	I
To cast you from his heart for ever more	L
He will not even know you are forgotten	D
Sister Thorgerd	L
	-
THORGERD draws in a long breath so sharply that it sounds to stab her repeatedly	M2
	-
Ay you will hate me as you used to do	L
Will you not hate me as you used to do	L
I was so happy when you still could hate me	M2
I fear it but you make me go Speak once	I
	-
After a long silence BLANID is heard to rise and go slowly to the door	L
	-
BLANID	L
Ohey Ohey	D
	-
THE VOICE outside Ohohey	D
	-
With a laugh of abandonment BLANID is heard to run into the night there is a brief silence then one far off long shriek is heard from her	L
	-
THE VOICE	I
Ohey Ohohey	D
	-
In the cottage THORGERD is heard to fall heavily to the floor	L
	-
The curtain descends on silence and darkness	I

Gordon Bottomley

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