(Untitled)

[ghazalah]

For Stephen
Aboard the Lively, off the coast of Spain, October 1804

'Shall we have some music after tea? I have written a piece I should like you to hear. It is a lament for the Tir nan Og.'

'What is the Tir nan Og?'

'The only bearable part of my country: it vanished long ago.'

--Post Captain

from The Wanderings of OisinAnd then young

Comments

[sparowe]

*wipes eyes*

[ghazalah]

But Anon, that's the happy part! Before all the bad stuff happens! :-) I'm kidding. It's all dismal. :-(

[ghazalah]

Remember when Stephen is talking with Dillon, and he says:

"That afternoon," he said, "I spent more spirit than I ever spent in my life. Even then I no longer cared for any cause or any theory of government on earth; I would not have lifted a finger for any nation's independence, fancied or real; and yet I had to reason with as much ardour as though I were filled with the same with the same enthusiasm as in the first days of the Revolution, when we were all overflowing with virtue and love."

One of the saddest things he ever says. For lo! the Islands of Dancing and of Victories are empty of all power. :-(

[ann_septimus]

'And which of these
Is the Island of Content?'

'None know,' she said;
And on my bosom laid her weeping head.

Those lines made me want to curl up in a little ball, knees to chest. Beautiful and perfectly "cast" for Stephen.

Yeats has the most amazing way with words, somehow evoking a dream-state with syntax. *sigh*

[ghazalah]

Yeats is part faerie, sure. He's dancing with them now, on some tor.