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W B Yeats – from Selected Poetry - The Cap and Bells

The jester walked in the garden
The garden had fallen still
He bade his soul rise upward
And stand in her windowsill

It rose in a straight blue garment
When owls began to call;
It had grown wise-tongued by thinking
Of a quiet and light footfall;

But the young queen would not listen;
She rose in her pale nightgown
She drew in the heavy casement
And pushed the latches down

He bade his heart go to her,
When the owls called out no more;
In a red and quivering garment
It sang to her through the door

It had grown sweet tongued by dreaming
Of a flutter of flower-like hair;
But she took up her fan from the table
And waved it off on the air

'I have cap and bells' he pondered
I will send them to her and die
And when the morning whitened
He left them where she went by

She laid them upon her bosom
Under a cloud of her hair
And her red lips sang them a love song
Till stars grew out of the air

She opened her door and her window
And the heart and the soul came through,
To her right hand came the red one
To her left hand came the blue

They set up a noise like crickets,
A chattering wise and sweet
And her hair was a folded flower
And the quiet of love in her feet