Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DESIRE AND THE LAMENTATION OF COEL, by WILLIAM SHARP


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DESIRE AND THE LAMENTATION OF COEL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O, 'tis a good house, and a palace fair, the dun of macha
Last Line: And the eyes of fire!
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Desire; Lament; Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


(The noise of harps and tympans. From the wood comes the loud chanting voice
of COEL):

O, 'tis a good house, and a palace fair, the DÛn of Macha,
And happy with a great household is Macha there:
Druids she has, and bards, minstrels, harpers, knights;
Hosts of servants she has, and wonders beautiful and rare,
But nought so wonderful and sweet as her face queenly fair,
O Macha of the Ruddy Hair!

(Choric Voices in a loud, swelling chant): O Macha of the Ruddy Hair!

(COEL chants):
The colour of her great Dûn is the shining whiteness of lime,
And within it are floors strewn with green rushes and couches white;
Soft wondrous silks and blue gold-claspt mantles and furs
Are there, and jewelled golden cups for revelry by night:
Thy grianân of gold and glass is filled with sunshine-light,
O Macha, queen by day, queen by night!

(Choric Voices): O Macha, queen by day, queen by night!

Beyond the green portals, and the brown and red thatch of wings
Striped orderly, the wings of innumerous stricken birds,
A wide shining floor reaches from wall to wall, wondrously carven
Out of a sheet of silver, whereon are graven swords
Intricately ablaze: mistress of many hoards
Art thou, Macha of few words!

(Choric Voices): O Macha of few words!

Fair indeed is thy couch, but fairer still is thy throne,
A chair it is, all of a blaze of wonderful yellow gold:
There thou sittest, and watchest the women going to and fro,
Each in garments fair and with long locks twisted fold in fold:
With the joy that is in thy house men would not grow old,
O Macha, proud, austere, cold.

(Choric Voices): O Macha, proud, austere, cold!

Of a surety there is much joy to be had of thee and thine,
There in the song-sweet sunlit bowers in that place;
Wounded men might sink in sleep and be well content
So to sleep, and to dream perchance, and know no other grace
Then to wake and look betimes on thy proud queenly face,
O Macha of the Proud Face!

(Choric Voices): O Macha of the Proud Face!

And if there be any here who wish to know more of this wonder,
Go, you will find all as I have shown, as I have said:
From beneath its portico, thatched with wings of birds blue and yellow
Reaches a green lawn, where a fount is fed
From crystal and gems: of crystal and gold each bed
In the house of Macha of the Ruddy Head!

(Choric Voices): In the house of Macha of the Ruddy Head!

In that great house where Macha the queen has her pleasaunce
There is everything in the whole world that a man might desire.
God is my witness that if I say little it is for this,
That I am grown faint with wonder, and can no more admire,
But say this only, that I live and die in the fire
Of thine eyes, O Macha, my desire,
With thine eyes of fire!

(Choric Voices in a loud swelling chant):

But say this only, that we live and die in the fire
Of thine eyes, O Macha, Dream, Desire,
With thine eyes of fire!

(Choric Voices repeat their refrains, but fainter, and becoming more
faint. Last vanishing sound of the harps and tympans.)

(The Voice of COEL):
And where now is Macha of the proud face and the ruddy hair,
Macha of few words, proud, austere, cold, with the eyes of fire?
Is she calling to the singers down there under the grass,
Is she saying to the bard, sing: and to the minstrel, where is thy lyre?
Or is that her voice that I hear, lonelier and further and higher
Than the wild wailing wind on the moor that echoes my desire,
O Macha of the proud face
And the eyes of fire!





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