The Complete Works. William Butler Yeats

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      What need have I, that gave up all for love,

      To die like an old king out of a fable,

      Fighting and passionate? What need is there

      For all that ostentation at my setting?

      I have loved truly and betrayed no man.

      I need no lightning at the end, no beating

      In a vain fury at the cage’s door.

      [To MUSICIANS.]

      Had you been here when that man and his queen

      Played at so high a game, could you have found

      An ancient poem for the praise of it?

      It should have set out plainly that those two,

      Because no man and woman have loved better,

      Might sit on there contentedly, and weigh

      The joy comes after. I have heard the seamew

      Sat there, with all the colour in her cheeks,

      As though she’d say: ‘There’s nothing happening

      But that a king and queen are playing chess.’

      DEIDRE.

      He’s in the right, though I have not been born

      Of the cold, haughty waves. My veins are hot.

      But though I have loved better than that queen,

      I’ll have as quiet fingers on the board.

      Oh, singing women, set it down in a book

      That love is all we need, even though it is

      But the last drops we gather up like this;

      And though the drops are all we have known of life,

      For we have been most friendless—praise us for it

      And praise the double sunset, for naught’s lacking,

      But a good end to the long, cloudy day.

      NAISI.

      Light torches there and drive the shadows out,

      For day’s red end comes up.

      [A MUSICIAN lights a torch in the fire and then crosses before the chess-players, and slowly lights the torches in the sconces. The light is almost gone from the wood, but there is a clear evening light in the sky, increasing the sense of solitude and loneliness.

      DEIRDRE.

      Make no sad music.

      What is it but a king and queen at chess?

      They need a music that can mix itself

      Into imagination, but not break

      The steady thinking that the hard game needs.

      [During the chess, the MUSICIANS sing this song.]

      Love is an immoderate thing

      And can never be content,

      Till it dip an ageing wing,

      Where some laughing element

      Leaps and Time’s old lanthorn dims.

      What’s the merit in love-play,

      In the tumult of the limbs

      That dies out before ’tis day,

      Heart on heart, or mouth on mouth,

      All that mingling of our breath,

      When love-longing is but drouth

      For the things come after death?

      [During the last verses DEIRDRE rises from the board and kneels at NAISI’S feet.]

      DEIRDRE.

      I cannot go on playing like that woman

      That had but the cold blood of the sea in her veins.

      NAISI.

      It is your move. Take up your man again.

      DEIDRE.

      Do you remember that first night in the woods

      We lay all night on leaves, and looking up,

      When the first grey of the dawn awoke the birds,

      Saw leaves above us. You thought that I still slept,

      And bending down to kiss me on the eyes,

      Found they were open. Bend and kiss me now,

      For it may be the last before our death.

      And when that’s over, we’ll be different;

      Imperishable things, a cloud or a fire.

      And I know nothing but this body, nothing

      But that old vehement, bewildering kiss.

      [CONCHUBAR comes to the door.]

      MUSICIAN.

      Children, beware!

      NAISI [laughing].

      He has taken up my challenge;

      Whether I am a ghost or living man

      When day has broken, I’ll forget the rest,

      And say that there is kingly stuff in him.

      [Turns to fetch spear and shield, and then sees that CONCHUBAR has gone.

      DEIRDRE.

      He came to spy upon us, not to fight.

      NAISI.

      A prudent hunter, therefore, but no king.

      He’d find if what has fallen in the pit

      Were worth the hunting, but has come too near,

      And I turn hunter. You’re not man, but beast.

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