Observations placeholder

W B Yeats – from Selected Poetry
from The Phases of the Moon

Aherne  What made that sound?

Robartes  A rat or water hen splashed, or an otter slid into the stream,
We are on the bridge; that shadow is the tower
And the light proves that he is reading still,

….............

And now he seeks in book or manuscript
What he shall never find

Aherne  Why should not you
Who know it all, ring at his door, and speak
Just truth enough to show that his whole life
Will scarcely find for him a broken crust
Of all those truths that are your daily bread
And when you have spoken take the roads again?

Robertes He wrote of me in that extravagant style
He had learnt from Pater and to round his tale
Said I was dead; and dead I choose to be

….................

Aherne  Were not our beds far off I'd ring the bell
Stand under the rough roof timbers of the hall
Beside the castle door, where all is stark
Austerity, a place set out for wisdom
That he will never find; I'd play a part;
He would never know me after all these years
But take me for some drunken countryman;
I'd stand and mutter there until he caught
'Hunchback and Saint and Fool' and that they came
Under the three last crescents of the moon
And then I'd stagger out.  He'd crack his wits
Day after day, yet never find the meaning.