The Wanderings Of Oisin: Book Iii Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Fled foam underneath us and round us a wandering and milky smoke	A
High as the Saddle girth covering away from our glances the tide	B
And those that fled and that followed from the foam pale distance broke	A
The immortal desire of Immortals we saw in their faces and sighed	B
	-
I mused on the chase with the Fenians and Bran Sceolan Lomair	C
And never a song sang Niamh and over my finger tips	D
Came now the sliding of tears and sweeping of mist cold hair	C
And now the warmth of sighs and after the quiver of lips	D
	-
Were we days long or hours long in riding when rolled in a grisly peace	E
An isle lay level before us with dripping hazel and oak	A
And we stood on a sea's edge we saw not for whiter than new washed fleece	E
Fled foam underneath us and round us a wandering and milky smoke	A
	-
And we rode on the plains of the sea's edge the sea's edge barren and grey	C
Grey sand on the green of the grasses and over the dripping trees	F
Dripping and doubling landward as though they would hasten away	C
Like an army of old men longing for rest from the moan of the seas	F
	-
But the trees grew taller and closer immense in their wrinkling bark	G
Dropping a murmurous dropping old silence and that one sound	H
For no live creatures lived there no weasels moved in the dark	G
Long sighs arose in our spirits beneath us bubbled the ground	H
	-
And the ears of the horse went sinking away in the hollow night	I
For as drift from a sailor slow drowning the gleams of the world and the sun	J
Ceased on our hands and our faces on hazel and oak leaf the light	I
And the stars were blotted above us and the whole of the world was one	J
	-
Till the horse gave a whinny for cumbrous with stems of the hazel and oak	A
A valley flowed down from his hoofs and there in the long grass lay	C
Under the starlight and shadow a monstrous slumbering folk	A
Their naked and gleaming bodies poured out and heaped in the way	C
	-
And by them were arrow and war axe arrow and shield and blade	K
And dew blanched horns in whose hollow a child of three years old	L
Could sleep on a couch of rushes and all inwrought and inlaid	K
And more comely than man can make them with bronze and silver and gold	L
	-
And each of the huge white creatures was huger than fourscore men	M
The tops of their ears were feathered their hands were the claws of birds	N
And shaking the plumes of the grasses and the leaves of the mural glen	M
The breathing came from those bodies long warless grown whiter than curds	N
	-
The wood was so Spacious above them that He who has stars for His flocks	N
Could fondle the leaves with His fingers nor go from His dew cumbered skies	N
So long were they sleeping the owls had builded their nests in their locks	N
Filling the fibrous dimness with long generations of eyes	N
	-
And over the limbs and the valley the slow owls wandered and came	O
Now in a place of star fire and now in a shadow place wide	B
And the chief of the huge white creatures his knees in the soft star flame	O
Lay loose in a place of shadow we drew the reins by his side	B
	-
Golden the nails of his bird clawS flung loosely along the dim ground	H
In one was a branch soft shining with bells more many than sighs	N
In midst of an old man's bosom owls ruffling and pacing around	H
Sidled their bodies against him filling the shade with their eyes	N
	-
And my gaze was thronged with the sleepers no not since the world began	P
In realms where the handsome were many nor in glamours by demons flung	Q
Have faces alive with such beauty been known to the salt eye of man	P
Yet weary with passions that faded when the sevenfold seas were young	Q
	-
And I gazed on the bell branch sleep's forebear far sung by the Sennachies	N
I saw how those slumbererS grown weary there camping in grasses deep	R
Of wars with the wide world and pacing the shores of the wandering seas	N
Laid hands on the bell branch and swayed it and fed of unhuman sleep	R
	-
Snatching the horn of Niamh I blew a long lingering note	S
Came sound from those monstrous sleepers a sound like the stirring of flies	N
He shaking the fold of his lips and heaving the pillar of his throat	S
Watched me with mournful wonder out of the wells of his eyes	N
	-
I cried 'Come out of the shadow king of the nails of gold	L
And tell of your goodly household and the goodly works of your hands	N
That we may muse in the starlight and talk of the battles of old	L
Your questioner Oisin is worthy he comes from the Fenian lands '	-
	-
Half open his eyes were and held me dull with the smoke of their dreams	N
His lips moved slowly in answer no answer out of them came	O
Then he swayed in his fingers the bell branch slow dropping a sound in faint streams	N
Softer than snow flakes in April and piercing the marrow like flame	O
	-
Wrapt in the wave of that music with weariness more than of earth	T
The moil of my centuries filled me and gone like a sea covered stone	U
Were the memories of the whole of my sorrow and the memories of the whole of my mirth	T
And a softness came from the starlight and filled me full to the bone	U
	-
In the roots of the grasses the sorrels I laid my body as low	V
And the pearl pale Niamh lay by me her brow on the midst of my breast	W
And the horse was gone in the distance and years after years 'gan flow	V
Square leaves of the ivy moved over us binding us down to our rest	W
	-
And man of the many white croziers a century there I forgot	X
How the fetlocks drip blocd in the battle when the fallen on fallen lie rolled	L
How the falconer follows the falcon in the weeds of the heron's plot	X
And the name of the demon whose hammer made Conchubar's sword blade of old	L
	-
And man of the many white croziers a century there I forgot	X
That the spear shaft is made out of ashwood the shield out of osier and hide	B
How the hammers spring on the anvil on the spearhead's burning spot	X
How the slow blue eyed oxen of Finn low sadly at evening tide	B
	-
But in dreams mild man of the croziers driving the dust with their throngs	N
Moved round me of seamen or landsmen all who are winter tales	N
Came by me the kings of the Red Branch with roaring of laughter and songs	N
Or moved as they moved once love making or piercing the tempest with sails	N
	-
Came Blanid Mac Nessa tall Fergus who feastward of old time slunk	Q
Cook Barach the traitor and warward the spittle on his beard never dry	C
Dark Balor as old as a forest car borne his mighty head sunk	Q
Helpless men lifting the lids of his weary and death making eye	C
	-
And by me in soft red raiment the Fenians moved in loud streams	N
And Grania walking and smiling sewed with her needle of bone	U
So lived I and lived not so wrought I and wrought not with creatures of dreams	N
In a long iron sleep as a fish in the water goes dumb as a stone	U
	-
At times our slumber was lightened When the sun was on silver or gold	L
When brushed with the wings of the owls in the dimness they love going by	C
When a glow worm was green on a grass leaf lured from his lair in the mould	L
Half wakening we lifted our eyelids and gazed on the grass with a sigh	C
	-
So watched I when man of the croziers at the heel of a century fell	Y
Weak in the midst of the meadow from his miles in the midst of the air	C
A starling like them that forgathered 'neath a moon waking white as a shell	Y
When the Fenians made foray at morning with Bran Sceolan Lomair	C
	-
I awoke the strange horse without summons out of the distance ran	P
Thrusting his nose to my shoulder he knew in his bosom deep	R
That once more moved in my bosom the ancient sadness of man	P
And that I would leave the Immortals their dimness their dews dropping sleep	R
	-
O had you seen beautiful Niamh grow white as the waters are white	I
Lord of the croziers you even had lifted your hands and wept	Z
But the bird in my fingers I mounted remembering alone that delight	I
Of twilight and slumber were gone and that hoofs impatiently stept	I
	-
I died 'O Niamh O whit	I

William Butler Yeats

The Wanderings Of Oisin: Book Iii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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