“I have spread my dreams under your feet.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
― W.B. Yeats
Yeats was a major proponent of symbolism. He has a riveting art of using common words and language to reach those abstract ideas. His imagery and his spell can always give you a feel of sorcery. He himself was quite fond of paranormal things and those ideas out there. I had a wish to read some Irish folklores and who other than Yeats could have quenched my thirst. I read this short play during lunchtime and then I noticed how effective I was in the first hour after lunch! It was a gripping read. short but utterly impressive!
There is an Irish legend (though I was not aware of it before reading this play) that if a newlywed bride, on May Eve, is tempted to give fire and milk, asked by fairies, she will be stolen away. This play is based on this legend.
In the scene, there is a room with a hearth on the floor in the middle of a deep alcove to the Right. There are benches in the alcove and a table; and a crucifix on the wall. Through the door, one can see the forest. It is night, but the moon or a late sunset glimmer through the trees and carries the eye far off into a vague, mysterious World. MAURTEEN, SHAWN, and BRIDGET sit in the alcove
at the table or about the fire. They are dressed in the costume of some remote time, and near them sits an old priest, FATHER HART. He may be dressed as a friar. There is food and drink at the table. MARY (Newlywed bride) stands by the door reading a book. If she looks up she can see through the door into the wood.
When hearing a song, they open the door and find a child, very much human-like. They pet her and play with her, and then with such innocently the child makes the priest powerless and terrorizes them and takes away the bride Mary. This is the place, where the art of Yeats’s poetic beauty can be sensed in its nailing style. Everything is written so transcendently.
While alluring the newlywed, says the Child …
“But I can lead you, newly-married bride,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue,
And where kind tongues bring no captivity;
For we are but obedient to the thoughts
That drift into the mind at a wink of the eye”
And in the last, when the purpose of the child is fulfilled and the bride is lured away. Dancing figures outside with many voices sing…
“The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away;
While the faeries dance in a place apart,
Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air;
For they hear the wind laugh and murmur and sing
Of a land where even the old are fair,
And even the wise are merry of tongue;
But I heard a reed of Coolaney say–
When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung,
The lonely of heart is withered away”
This is such an engrossing play of dream and hope.
This was also the first publicly performed play of Yeats.
I really enjoyed it!
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