I'd tell of that great queen
Who stood amid a silence by the thorn
Until two lovers came out of the air
With bodies made out of soft fire. The one
About whose face birds wagged their fiery wings
Said, 'Aengus and his sweetheart give their thanks
To Maeve and to Maeve's household, owing all
In owing them the bride-bed that gives peace'.
Then Maeve, 'O Aengus, Master of all lovers,
A thousand years ago you held high talk
With the first kings of many pillared Cruachan
O when will you grow weary'.
They had vanished,
But out of the dark air over her head there came
A murmur of soft words and meeting lips.
BAILE AND AILLINN
Argument. Baile and Aillinn were lovers, but Aengus, the Master of Love, wishing them to be happy in his own land among the dead, told to each a story of the others death, so that their hearts were broken and they died.
I hardly hear the curlew cry,
Nor the grey rush when wind is high,
Before my thoughts begin to run
On the heir of Ulad, Buan's son,
Baile who had the honey mouth,
7
