William Butler Yeats. The Player Queen. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

The Player Queen

By William Butler Yeats


Song from an Unfinished Play. MY mother dandled me and sang,
“How young it is, how young!”
And made a golden cradle
That on a willow swung.

“He went away,” my mother sang,	5
“When I was brought to bed;”
And all the while her needle pulled
The gold and silver thread.

She pulled the thread and bit the thread
And made a golden gown,	10
And wept because she’d dreamt that I
Was born to wear a crown.

“When she was got,” my mother sang,
“I heard a sea-mew cry,
And saw a flake of the yellow foam	15
That dropped upon my thigh.”

How therefore could she help but braid
The gold into my hair,
And dream that I should carry
The golden top of care?	20