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

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EAEA CFCF GHGH IJIJ ACAC KLKL MNMN NNNN OBOB HNHN PQPQ NRNR SNSN LNL NONO TUTU VWVW XLXL XBXB NNNN QCQC NUNU LCLC YCYC PRPR IZII I

Fled foam underneath us and round us a wandering and milky smokeA
High as the Saddle girth covering away from our glances the tideB
And those that fled and that followed from the foam pale distance brokeA
The immortal desire of Immortals we saw in their faces and sighedB
-
I mused on the chase with the Fenians and Bran Sceolan LomairC
And never a song sang Niamh and over my finger tipsD
Came now the sliding of tears and sweeping of mist cold hairC
And now the warmth of sighs and after the quiver of lipsD
-
Were we days long or hours long in riding when rolled in a grisly peaceE
An isle lay level before us with dripping hazel and oakA
And we stood on a sea's edge we saw not for whiter than new washed fleeceE
Fled foam underneath us and round us a wandering and milky smokeA
-
And we rode on the plains of the sea's edge the sea's edge barren and greyC
Grey sand on the green of the grasses and over the dripping treesF
Dripping and doubling landward as though they would hasten awayC
Like an army of old men longing for rest from the moan of the seasF
-
But the trees grew taller and closer immense in their wrinkling barkG
Dropping a murmurous dropping old silence and that one soundH
For no live creatures lived there no weasels moved in the darkG
Long sighs arose in our spirits beneath us bubbled the groundH
-
And the ears of the horse went sinking away in the hollow nightI
For as drift from a sailor slow drowning the gleams of the world and the sunJ
Ceased on our hands and our faces on hazel and oak leaf the lightI
And the stars were blotted above us and the whole of the world was oneJ
-
Till the horse gave a whinny for cumbrous with stems of the hazel and oakA
A valley flowed down from his hoofs and there in the long grass layC
Under the starlight and shadow a monstrous slumbering folkA
Their naked and gleaming bodies poured out and heaped in the wayC
-
And by them were arrow and war axe arrow and shield and bladeK
And dew blanched horns in whose hollow a child of three years oldL
Could sleep on a couch of rushes and all inwrought and inlaidK
And more comely than man can make them with bronze and silver and goldL
-
And each of the huge white creatures was huger than fourscore menM
The tops of their ears were feathered their hands were the claws of birdsN
And shaking the plumes of the grasses and the leaves of the mural glenM
The breathing came from those bodies long warless grown whiter than curdsN
-
The wood was so Spacious above them that He who has stars for His flocksN
Could fondle the leaves with His fingers nor go from His dew cumbered skiesN
So long were they sleeping the owls had builded their nests in their locksN
Filling the fibrous dimness with long generations of eyesN
-
And over the limbs and the valley the slow owls wandered and cameO
Now in a place of star fire and now in a shadow place wideB
And the chief of the huge white creatures his knees in the soft star flameO
Lay loose in a place of shadow we drew the reins by his sideB
-
Golden the nails of his bird clawS flung loosely along the dim groundH
In one was a branch soft shining with bells more many than sighsN
In midst of an old man's bosom owls ruffling and pacing aroundH
Sidled their bodies against him filling the shade with their eyesN
-
And my gaze was thronged with the sleepers no not since the world beganP
In realms where the handsome were many nor in glamours by demons flungQ
Have faces alive with such beauty been known to the salt eye of manP
Yet weary with passions that faded when the sevenfold seas were youngQ
-
And I gazed on the bell branch sleep's forebear far sung by the SennachiesN
I saw how those slumbererS grown weary there camping in grasses deepR
Of wars with the wide world and pacing the shores of the wandering seasN
Laid hands on the bell branch and swayed it and fed of unhuman sleepR
-
Snatching the horn of Niamh I blew a long lingering noteS
Came sound from those monstrous sleepers a sound like the stirring of fliesN
He shaking the fold of his lips and heaving the pillar of his throatS
Watched me with mournful wonder out of the wells of his eyesN
-
I cried 'Come out of the shadow king of the nails of goldL
And tell of your goodly household and the goodly works of your handsN
That we may muse in the starlight and talk of the battles of oldL
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 dreamsN
His lips moved slowly in answer no answer out of them cameO
Then he swayed in his fingers the bell branch slow dropping a sound in faint streamsN
Softer than snow flakes in April and piercing the marrow like flameO
-
Wrapt in the wave of that music with weariness more than of earthT
The moil of my centuries filled me and gone like a sea covered stoneU
Were the memories of the whole of my sorrow and the memories of the whole of my mirthT
And a softness came from the starlight and filled me full to the boneU
-
In the roots of the grasses the sorrels I laid my body as lowV
And the pearl pale Niamh lay by me her brow on the midst of my breastW
And the horse was gone in the distance and years after years 'gan flowV
Square leaves of the ivy moved over us binding us down to our restW
-
And man of the many white croziers a century there I forgotX
How the fetlocks drip blocd in the battle when the fallen on fallen lie rolledL
How the falconer follows the falcon in the weeds of the heron's plotX
And the name of the demon whose hammer made Conchubar's sword blade of oldL
-
And man of the many white croziers a century there I forgotX
That the spear shaft is made out of ashwood the shield out of osier and hideB
How the hammers spring on the anvil on the spearhead's burning spotX
How the slow blue eyed oxen of Finn low sadly at evening tideB
-
But in dreams mild man of the croziers driving the dust with their throngsN
Moved round me of seamen or landsmen all who are winter talesN
Came by me the kings of the Red Branch with roaring of laughter and songsN
Or moved as they moved once love making or piercing the tempest with sailsN
-
Came Blanid Mac Nessa tall Fergus who feastward of old time slunkQ
Cook Barach the traitor and warward the spittle on his beard never dryC
Dark Balor as old as a forest car borne his mighty head sunkQ
Helpless men lifting the lids of his weary and death making eyeC
-
And by me in soft red raiment the Fenians moved in loud streamsN
And Grania walking and smiling sewed with her needle of boneU
So lived I and lived not so wrought I and wrought not with creatures of dreamsN
In a long iron sleep as a fish in the water goes dumb as a stoneU
-
At times our slumber was lightened When the sun was on silver or goldL
When brushed with the wings of the owls in the dimness they love going byC
When a glow worm was green on a grass leaf lured from his lair in the mouldL
Half wakening we lifted our eyelids and gazed on the grass with a sighC
-
So watched I when man of the croziers at the heel of a century fellY
Weak in the midst of the meadow from his miles in the midst of the airC
A starling like them that forgathered 'neath a moon waking white as a shellY
When the Fenians made foray at morning with Bran Sceolan LomairC
-
I awoke the strange horse without summons out of the distance ranP
Thrusting his nose to my shoulder he knew in his bosom deepR
That once more moved in my bosom the ancient sadness of manP
And that I would leave the Immortals their dimness their dews dropping sleepR
-
O had you seen beautiful Niamh grow white as the waters are whiteI
Lord of the croziers you even had lifted your hands and weptZ
But the bird in my fingers I mounted remembering alone that delightI
Of twilight and slumber were gone and that hoofs impatiently steptI
-
I died 'O Niamh O whitI

William Butler Yeats



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