#The Grey Rock #### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition ### Background details and bibliographic information The Grey Rock ============= Author: William Butler Yeats ---------------------------- ### File Description Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber, Juliette Maffet Funded by School of History, University College, Cork 1. First draft.Extent of text: 1355 words#### Publication CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt (2012) Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland. Text ID Number: E910001-002Availability [RESTRICTED] The works by W. B. Yeats are in the public domain. This electronic text is available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of private or academic research and teaching. #### Sources **Bibliography**2. A bibliography is available online at the official web site of the Nobel Prize. See: http://nobelprize.org/nobel\_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bibl.html **The edition used in the digital edition**2. William Butler Yeats The Grey Rock in , Ed. William Butler Yeats Responsibilities and other Poems. The Macmillan Company, New York, (1916) page 3–10 ### Encoding #### Project Description CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts #### Sampling Declaration The whole selection. #### Editorial Declaration ##### Correction Text has been proof-read twice. ##### Normalization The electronic text represents the edited text. Lines (or parts of thereof) reproduced in italics in the printed edition are tagged hi rend="ital". ##### Hyphenation The editorial practice of the hard-copy editor has been retained. ##### Segmentation div0 =the poem, stanzas are marked lg. ##### Interpretation Names of persons (given names), and places are not tagged. Terms for cultural and social roles are not tagged. ### Profile Description Created: By William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). Date range: before 1916.#### Use of language ##### Language: [EN] The poem is in English. ### Revision History * (2012-02-29) Beatrix Färber (ed.) * Proof corrections made by CELT volunteer Carol Cregg integrated. * (2012-02-08) Beatrix Färber (ed.) * File proofed (2), additions to encoding made; header completed; file parsed; SGML and HTML files created. * (2012-02-01) Juliette Maffet (ed.) * Header created. * (2012-01-23) Juliette Maffet (ed.) * First proofing. * (2012-01-18) Juliette Maffet (file capture) * Text captured by scanning. --- #### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E910001-002 ### The Grey Rock: Author: William Butler Yeats --- p.3 1. Poets with whom I learned my trade, Companions of the Cheshire Cheese, Here's an old story I've re-made, Imagining 'twould better please Your ears than stories now in fashion, Though you may think I waste my breath Pretending that there can be passion That has more life in it than death, And though at bottling of your wine The bow-legged Goban had no say; The moral's yours because it's mine. 2. When cups went round at close of day— Is not that how good stories run?— Somewhere within some hollow hill, --- p.4 If books speak truth in Slievenamon, But let that be, the gods were still And sleepy, having had their meal, And smoky torches made a glare On painted pillars, on a deal Of fiddles and of flutes hung there By the ancient holy hands that brought them From murmuring Murias, on cups— Old Goban hammered them and wrought them, And put his pattern round their tops To hold the wine they buy of him. But from the juice that made them wise All those had lifted up the dim Imaginations of their eyes, For one that was like woman made Before their sleepy eyelids ran And trembling with her passion said, 'Come out and dig for a dead man, Who's burrowing somewhere in the ground, --- p.5 And mock him to his face and then Hollo him on with horse and hound, For he is the worst of all dead men.' 3. We should be dazed and terror-struck, If we but saw in dreams that room, Those wine-drenched eyes, and curse our luck That emptied all our days to come. I knew a woman none could please, Because she dreamed when but a child Of men and women made like these; And after, when her blood ran wild, Had ravelled her own story out, And said, 'In two or in three years I need must marry some poor lout,' And having said it burst in tears. Since, tavern comrades, you have died, Maybe your images have stood, Mere bone and muscle thrown aside, Before that roomful or as good. You had to face your ends when young— 'Twas wine or women, or some curse— --- p.6 But never made a poorer song That you might have a heavier purse, Nor gave loud service to a cause That you might have a troop of friends. You kept the Muses' sterner laws, And unrepenting faced your ends, And therefore earned the right—and yet Dowson and Johnson most I praise— To troop with those the world's forgot, And copy their proud steady gaze. 4. 'The Danish troop was driven out Between the dawn and dusk,' she said; 'Although the event was long in doubt, Although the King of Ireland's dead And half the kings, before sundown All was accomplished.' 5. 'When this day Murrough, the King of Ireland's son, Foot after foot was giving way, --- p.7 He and his best troops back to back Had perished there, but the Danes ran, Stricken with panic from the attack, The shouting of an unseen man; And being thankful Murrough found, Led by a footsole dipped in blood That had made prints upon the ground, Where by old thorn trees that man stood; And though when he gazed here and there, He had but gazed on thorn trees, spoke, 'Who is the friend that seems but air And yet could give so fine a stroke?' Thereon a young man met his eye, Who said, 'Because she held me in Her love, and would not have me die, Rock-nurtured Aoife took a pin, And pushing it into my shirt, Promised that for a pin's sake, No man should see to do me hurt; But there it's gone; I will not take --- p.8 The fortune that had been my shame Seeing, King's son, what wounds you have.' 'Twas roundly spoke, but when night came He had betrayed me to his grave, For he and the King's son were dead. I'd promised him two hundred years, And when for all I'd done or said— And these immortal eyes shed tears— He claimed his country's need was most, I'd save his life, yet for the sake Of a new friend he has turned a ghost. What does he care if my heart break? I call for spade and horse and hound That we may harry him.' Thereon She cast herself upon the ground And rent her clothes and made her moan: 'Why are they faithless when their might Is from the holy shades that rove --- p.9 The grey rock and the windy light? Why should the faithfullest heart most love The bitter sweetness of false faces? Why must the lasting love what passes, Why are the gods by men betrayed! 6. But thereon every god stood up With a slow smile and without sound, And stretching forth his arm and cup To where she moaned upon the ground, Suddenly drenched her to the skin; And she with Goban's wine adrip, No more remembering what had been, Stared at the gods with laughing lip. 7. I have kept my faith, though faith was tried, To that rock-born, rock-wandering foot, And the world's altered since you died, And I am in no good repute --- p.10 With the loud host before the sea, That think sword strokes were better meant Than lover's music—let that be, So that the wandering foot's content.