Sunday, September 7, 2014

Yeats

Fall is also a great time for the timeless mystical work of Yeats [1865-1939]. Some of his work is squarely in the tarot and magic inspired camp [which he had a personal interest in], like in 'Book II' of his "The Wanderings of Usheen", a long Celtic, mystic poem. Read more here.

It's easier to image the edges of the rational world bleeding away as fall comes in, and winter starts. Reason and rules seem to go out the window, and a cold cloud settles over the ground. It almost seems unearthly.

Here's an excerpt:

Now, man of croziers, shadows called our names
And then away, away, like whirling flames;
And now fled by, mist-covered, without sound,
The youth and lady and the deer and hound;
"Gaze no more on the phantoms," Niam said,
And kissed my eyes, and, swaying her bright head
And her bright body, sang of faery and man
Before God was or my old line began;
Wars shadowy, vast, exultant; faeries of old
Who wedded men with rings of Druid
[...]
I do not know if days
Or hours passed by, yet hold the morning rays
Shone many times among the glimmering flowers
Woven into her hair, before dark towers
Rose in the darkness, and the white surf gleamed
About them;

[...]

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