The Old Age Of Queen Maeve Poem Rhyme Scheme

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 6 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)

A certain poet in outlandish clothes	A
Gathered a crowd in some Byzantine lane	B
Talked of his country and its people sang	C
To some stringed instrument none there had seen	D
A wall behind his back over his head	E
A latticed window His glance went up at time	F
As though one listened there and his voice sank	G
Or let its meaning mix into the strings	H
	-
Maeve the great queen was pacing to and fro	I
Between the walls covered with beaten bronze	J
In her high house at Cruachan the long hearth	K
Flickering with ash and hazel but half showed	L
Where the tired horse boys lay upon the rushes	M
Or on the benches underneath the walls	N
In comfortable sleep all living slept	O
But that great queen who more than half the night	P
Had paced from door to fire and fire to door	Q
Though now in her old age in her young age	R
She had been beautiful in that old way	S
That's all but gone for the proud heart is gone	T
And the fool heart of the counting house fears all	U
But Soft beauty and indolent desire	V
She could have called over the rim of the world	W
Whatever woman's lover had hit her fancy	X
And yet had been great bodied and great limbed	Y
Fashioned to be the mother of strong children	Z
And she'd had lucky eyes and high heart	A2
And wisdom that caught fire like the dried flax	B2
At need and made her beautiful and fierce	C2
Sudden and laughing	D2
O unquiet heart	A2
Why do you praise another praising her	V
As if there were no tale but your own tale	E2
Worth knitting to a measure of sweet sound	F2
Have I not bid you tell of that great queen	D
Who has been buried some two thousand years	G2
	-
When night was at its deepest a wild goose	H2
Cried from the porter's lodge and with long clamour'	V
Shook the ale horns and shields upon their hooks	I2
But the horse boys slept on as though some power	V
Had filled the house with Druid heaviness	I2
And wondering who of the many changing Sidhe	J2
Had come as in the old times to counsel her	V
Maeve walked yet with slow footfall being old	K2
To that small chamber by the outer gate	L2
The porter slept although he sat upright	P
With still and stony limbs and open eyes	I2
Maeve waited and when that ear piercing noise	I2
Broke from his parted lips and broke again	M2
She laid a hand on either of his shoulders	I2
And shook him wide awake and bid him say	I2
Who of the wandering many changing ones	I2
Had troubled his sleep But all he had to say	I2
Was that the air being heavy and the dogs	I2
More still than they had been for a good month	N2
He had fallen asleep and though he had dreamed	O2
nothing	D2
He could remember when he had had fine dreams	I2
It was before the time of the great war	V
Over the White Horned Bull and the Brown Bull	P2
	-
She turned away he turned again to sleep	Q2
That no god troubled now and wondering	D2
What matters were afoot among the Sidhe	J2
Maeve walked through that great hall and with a sigh	R2
Lifted the curtain of her sleeping room	S2
Remembering that she too had seemed divine	T2
To many thousand eyes and to her own	U2
One that the generations had long waited	V2
That work too difficult for mortal hands	I2
Might be accomplished Bunching the curtain up	W2
She saw her husband Ailell sleeping there	V
And thought of days when he'd had a straight body	X
And of that famous Fergus Nessa's husband	X2
Who had been the lover of her middle life	Y2
	-
Suddenly Ailell spoke out of his sleep	Q2
And not with his own voice or a man's voice	I2
But with the burning live unshaken voice	I2
Of those that it may be can never age	R
He said 'High Queen of Cruachan and Magh Ai	R2
A king of the Great Plain would speak with you '	-
And with glad voice Maeve answered him 'What king	D2
Of the far wandering shadows has come to me	X
As in the old days when they would come and go	I
About my threshold to counsel and to help '	-
The parted lips replied 'I seek your help	Z2
For I am Aengus and I am crossed in love '	-
'How may a mortal whose life gutters out	A3
Help them that wander with hand clasping hand	B3
Their haughty images that cannot wither	V
For all their beauty's like a hollow dream	C3
Mirrored in streams that neither hail nor rain	B
Nor the cold North has troubled '	-
He replied	D3
'I am from those rivers and I bid you call	U
The children of the Maines out of sleep	Q2
And set them digging under Bual's hill	E3
We shadows while they uproot his earthy housc	I
Will overthrow his shadows and carry off	F3
Caer his blue eyed daughter that I love	G3
I helped your fathers when they built these walls	I2
And I would have your help in my great need	H3
Queen of high Cruachan '	-
'I obey your will	E3
With speedy feet and a most thankful heart	A2
For you have been O Aengus of the birds	I2
Our giver of good counsel and good luck '	-
And with a groan as if the mortal breath	I3
Could but awaken sadly upon lips	I2
That happier breath had moved her husband turned	J3
Face downward tossing in a troubled sleep	Q2
But Maeve and not with a slow feeble foot	K3
Came to the threshold of the painted house	I2
Where her grandchildren slept and cried aloud	L3
Until the pillared dark began to stir	V
With shouting and the clang of unhooked arms	I2
She told them of the many changing ones	I2
And all that night and all through the next day	I2
To middle night they dug into the hill	E3
At middle night great cats with silver claws	I2
Bodies of shadow and blind eyes like pearls	I2
Came up out of the hole and red eared hounds	I2
With long white bodies came out of the air	V
Suddenly and ran at them and harried them	M3
	-
The Maines' children dropped their spades and stood	N3
With quaking joints and terror stricken faces	I2
Till Maeve called out 'These are but common men	M2
The Maines' children have not dropped their spades	I2
Because Earth crazy for its broken power	V
Casts up a Show and the winds answer it	O3
With holy shadows ' Her high heart was glad	P3
And when the uproar ran along the grass	I2
She followed with light footfall in the midst	Q3
Till it died out where an old thorn tree stood	N3
	-
Friend of these many years you too had stood	N3
With equal courage in that whirling rout	A3
For you although you've not her wandering heart	A2
Have all that greatness and not hers alone	U2
For there is no high story about queens	I2
In any ancient book but tells of you	R3
And when I've heard how they grew old and died	D3
Or fell into unhappiness I've said	E
'She will grow old and die and she has wept '	-
And when I'd write it out anew the words	I2
Half crazy with the thought She too has wept	O
Outrun the measure	V
I'd tell of that great queen	D
Who stood amid a silence by the thorn	S3
Until two lovers came out of the air	V
With bodies made out of soft fire The one	Z
About whose face birds wagged their fiery wings	I2
Said 'Aengus and his sweetheart give their thanks	I2
To Maeve and to Maeve's household owing all	U
In owing them the bride bed that gives peace '	-
Then Maeve 'O Aengus Master of all lovers	I2
A thousand years ago you held high ralk	I
With the first kings of many pillared Cruachan	Z
O when will you grow weary '	-
They had vanished	T3
But our of the dark air over her head there came	U3
A murmur of soft words and meeting lips	I2

William Butler Yeats

The Old Age Of Queen Maeve Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Write your comment about The Old Age Of Queen Maeve poem by William Butler Yeats

Recent Interactions*

New Poems

Popular Poets