The Land of Hearts Desire

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land Of Heart's Desire (Little Blue Book#335), by W.B. Yeats
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Title: The Land Of Heart's Desire (Little Blue Book#335)
Author: W.B. Yeats
Release Date: February 23, 2005 [EBook #15153]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE ***
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LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 335?Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
The Land of?Heart's Desire
W.B. Yeats
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY?GIRARD, KANSAS
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE
PERSONS
MAURTEEN BRUIN.?SHAWN BRUIN.?FATHER HART.?BRIDGET BRUIN.?MAIRE BRUIN.?A FAERY CHILD.
_The scene is laid in the Barony of Kilmacowen?in the county of Sligo, and the time is the?end of Eighteenth Century. The?characters are supposed to?speak in Gaelic._
THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE
The kitchen of_ MAURTEEN BRAIN'S house. An open grate with a turf fire is at the left side of the room, with a table in front of it. There is a door leading to the open air at the back, and another door a little to its left, leading into an inner room. There is a window, a settle, and a large dresser on the right side of the room, and a great bowl of primroses on the sill of the window._ MAURTEEN BRUIN, FATHER HART; and_ BRIDGET BRUIN _are sitting at the table._ SHAWN BRUIN is setting the table for supper._ MAIRE BRUIN _sits on the settle reading a yellow manuscript._
BRIDGET BRUIN.
Because I bade her go and feed the calves,?She took that old book down out of the thatch?And has been doubled over it all day.?We would be deafened by her groans and moans?Had she to work as some do, Father Hart,?Get up at dawn like me, and mend and scour;?Or ride abroad in the boisterous night like you,?The pyx and blessed bread under your arm.
SHAWN BRUIN.
You are too cross.
BRIDGET BRUIN.
The young side with the young.
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
She quarrels with my wife a bit at times,?And is too deep just now in the old book;?But do not blame her greatly; she will grow?As quiet as a puff-ball in a tree?When but the moons of marriage dawn and die?For half a score of times.
FATHER HART
Their hearts are wild?As be the hearts of birds, till children come.
BRIDGET BRUIN.
She would not mind the griddle, milk the cow,?Or even lay the knives and spread the cloth.
FATHER HART.
I never saw her read a book before:?What may it be?
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
I do not rightly know:?It has been in the thatch for fifty years.?My father told me my grandfather wrote it,?Killed a red heifer and bound it with the hide.?But draw your chair this way--supper is spread;?And little good he got out of the book,?Because it filled his house with roaming bards,?And roaming ballad-makers and the like,?And wasted all his goods.--Here is the wine;?The griddle bread's beside you, Father Hart.?Colleen, what have you got there in the book?That you must leave the bread to cool? Had I,?Or had my father, read or written books?There were no stockings full of silver and gold?To come, when I am dead, to Shawn and you.
FATHER HART.
You should not fill your head with foolish dreams.?What are you reading?
MAIRE BRUIN.
How a Princess Edene,?A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard?A voice singing on a May eve like this,?And followed, half awake and half asleep,?Until she came into the land of faery,?Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,?Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,?Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue;?And she is still there, busied with a dance.?Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood,?Or where stars walk upon a mountain top.
MAURTEEN BRUIN.
Persuade the colleen to put by the book:?My grandfather would mutter just such things,?And he was no judge of a dog or horse,?And any idle boy could blarney him.?Just speak your mind.
FATHER HART.
Put it away, my colleen.?God spreads the heavens above us like great wings,?And gives a little round of deeds and days,?And then come the wrecked angels and set snares,?And bait them with light hopes and heavy dreams,?Until the heart is puffed with pride and goes,?Half shuddering and half joyous, from God's peace;?And it was some wrecked angel, blind tears,?Who flattered Edene's heart with merry words.?My colleen, I have seen some other girls?Restless and ill at ease, but years went by?And they grew like their neighbours and were glad?In minding children, working at the churn,?And gossiping of weddings and of wakes;?For life moves out of a red flare of dreams?Into a common light of common hours,?Until old age bring the red flare again.
SHAWN BRUIN.
Yet do not blame her greatly, Father Hart, For she is dull while