A Faery Song
[Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania,
in their bridal sleep under a Cromlech.]
We who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of
years,
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the
world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of
the night,
And the stars above:
Give to these children, new from the
world,
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of
years,
If all were told.
William
Butler Yeats, Irish poet; he was born
on
this date, 1865, in Dublin
Ireland, from
ancient times, has had many land and water spirits, thought to live in the
mysterious and complex monuments left by the megalithic culture. Brugh na
Boyne, for example, is the home of Oengus, the Celtic god of Love, Poetry and
Death. They left the upper earth to live underground because of the
destructiveness of human beings. “Faery” is a deliberate spelling, to
distinguish them and their powers from the “disney fairy”. The legend of Diarmuid and Grania is an Irish
folktale that describes two lovers who steal away together prior to Grania’s marriage to the
famed warrior Finn MacCumhail.
power is old, very old
it offers many gifts
and many have sought
gifts of power
that have destroyed them
yet we continue to seek them
or wrest them
from the old ones
silence and love
the long dew dropping hours of the night
the stars above
rest far from men
these gifts i bless
and am learning
to seek
from the old, old powers
Brian+
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