THE SHADOWY WATERS
 
 To Lady Gregory
 
 <1I walked among the seven woods of Coole:
 Shan-walla, where a willow-hordered pond
 Gathers the wild duck from the winter dawn;
 Shady Kyle-dortha; sunnier Kyle-na-no,
 Where many hundred squirrels are as happy
 As though they had been hidden hy green houghs
 Where old age cannot find them; Paire-na-lee,
 Where hazel and ash and privet hlind the paths:
 Dim Pairc-na-carraig, where the wild bees fling
 Their sudden fragrances on the green air;
 Dim Pairc-na-tarav, where enchanted eyes
 Have seen immortal, mild, proud shadows walk;
 Dim Inchy wood, that hides badger and fox
 And marten-cat, and borders that old wood
 Wise Buddy Early called the wicked wood:
 Seven odours, seven murmurs, seven woods.
 I had not eyes like those enchanted eyes,
 Yet dreamed that beings happier than men
 Moved round me in the shadows, and at night
 My dreams were clown hy voices and by fires;
 And the images I have woven in this story
 Of Forgael and Dectora and the empty waters
 Moved round me in the voices and the fires,
 And more I may not write of, for they that cleave
 The waters of sleep can make a chattering tongue
 Heavy like stone, their wisdom being half silence.
 How shall I name you, immortal, mild, proud shadows?
 I only know that all we know comes from you,
 And that you come from Eden on flying feet.
 Is Eden far away, or do you hide
 From human thought, as hares and mice and coneys
 That run before the reaping-hook and lie
 In the last ridge of the barley? Do our woods>1
 <1And winds and ponds cover more quiet woods,
 More shining winds, more star-glimmering ponds?
 Is Eden out of time and out of space?
 And do you gather about us when pale light
 Shining on water and fallen among leaves,
 And winds blowing from flowers, and whirr of feathers
 And the green quiet, have uplifted the heart?
 I have made this poem for you, that men may read it
 Before they read of Forgael and Dectora,
 As men in the old times, before the harps began,
 Poured out wine for the high invisible ones.>1