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| THERE came a little light-foot breeze a-dancing down the bay, | |
| It kissed me on my lips and eyes, and oh, my heart was fey! | |
| For the blue hills, the true hills, the sickle-sweep of sand, | |
| The glen that opened out beyond, the trees on either hand. | |
| For white against the darkling wood, beyond the shoreward seas, | 5 |
| I knew that you were waiting in the Isle of Apple-trees. | |
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| The broad red sail dropped slowly down, the anchorstone splashed clear; | |
| The sea-birds rose, a screaming cloud, before our sailors’ cheer. | |
| I took no heed of wave or weed, but fared in haste to shore, | |
| In dread the dream might fade away, and I should dream no more. | 10 |
| For well I knew I dreamed; but oh! I prayed it might not cease | |
| Ere you and I had met amid the Isle of Apple-trees. | |
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| How all the faery woodland sought to stay me from my quest! | |
| A thousand unseen voices woke strange fancies in my breast. | |
| But I stayed not, delayed not, to Aengus I prayed, | 15 |
| Through numberless beguilings I passed into the glade. | |
| The blue sea crooned beneath the hill, and overhead the breeze | |
| As our lips met and our hearts met in the Isle of Apple-trees. | |
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| O far-off, faery isle of dreams! Once more let me discern | |
| The water-fall, half-light, half-song, that laughed among the fern; | 20 |
| The high hills, the shy hills, a-dreaming in the mist; | |
| The scented air, the heavy boughs, the hedges sunny-kissed! | |
| I’m hearing still the wailing of the birds and of the breeze, | |
| For the love I found and lost again in the Isle of Apple-trees! | |
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| Oh, little hands and dewy lips, and softly-shining eyes, | 25 |
| Have you for ever fled? My heart is sick with memories. | |
| Why have you made me half afraid lest all my search prove vain, | |
| And ne’er till all the worlds grow cold we two shall meet again? | |
| O life or death or hell or heaven! What should I care for these? | |
| I have forgot the pathway to the Isle of Apple-trees! | 30 |
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