33. Hanrahan speaks to the Lovers of his Songs in coming Days. Yeats, W. B. 1899. The Wind Among the Reeds

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). The Wind Among the Reeds. 1899.

33. Hanrahan speaks to the Lovers of his Songs in coming Days

O, COLLEENS, kneeling by your altar rails long hence,
When songs I wove for my beloved hide the prayer,
And smoke from this dead heart drifts through the violet air
And covers away the smoke of myrrh and frankincense;
Bend down and pray for the great sin I wove in song,	5
Till Maurya of the wounded heart cry a sweet cry,
And call to my beloved and me: ‘No longer fly
‘Amid the hovering, piteous, penitential throng.’