Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEDICATION TO A BOOK OF STORIES SELECTED FROM THE IRISH NOVELISTS (2), by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEDICATION TO A BOOK OF STORIES SELECTED FROM THE IRISH NOVELISTS (2), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: There was a green branch hung with many a bell
Last Line: On munster grass and connemara skies.
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Irish Fiction


There was a green branch hung with many a bell
When her own people ruled in wave-worn Eire;
And from its murmuring greenness, calm of faery,
A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.

It charmed away the merchant from his guile,
And turned the farmer's memory from his cattle,
And hushed in sleep the roaring ranks of battle,
For all who heard it dreamed a little while.

Ah, Exiles wandering over many seas,
Spinning at all times Eire's good to-morrow!
Ah, worldwide Nation, always growing Sorrow!
I also bear a bell branch full of ease.

I tore it from green boughs winds tossed and hurled,
Green boughs of tossing always, weary, weary!
I tore it from the green boughs of old Eire,
That country where a man can so be crossed;

Can be so battered, badgered, destroyed
That he's a loveless man: gay bells bright laughter
That shakes a mouldering cobweb from the rafter;
And yet the saddest chimes are best enjoyed.

Gay bells or sad, they bring you memories
Of half-forgotten innocent old places:
We and our bitterness have left no traces
On Munster grass and Connemara skies.






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