In the Seven Woods by Yeats

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In the Seven Woods

I have heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods
Make their faint thunder, and the garden bees
Hum in the lime-tree flowers; and put away
The unavailing outcries and the old bitterness
That empty the heart. I have forgot awhile
Tara uprooted, and new commonness
Upon the throne and crying about the streets
And hanging its paper flowers from post to post,
Because it is alone of all things happy.
I am contented, for I know that Quiet
Wanders laughing and eating her wild heart
Among pigeons and bees, while that Great Archer,
Who but awaits His hour to shoot, still hangs
A cloudy quiver over Pairc-na-lee.

In the Seven Woods is a volume of poems by William Butler Yeats, published in 1903 by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press. It is also the title poem of that volume.

Commentary

This is the first book of Yeats' "middle period," in which he eschewed his previous Romantic ideals and preference for pre-Raphaelite imagery, in favor of a more spare style and an anti-romantic poetic stance similar to that of Walter Savage Landor. The poem "Adam's Curse", however, continues to reflect the old ideals. This is also the most popular and frequently anthologized poem from the volume.

Contents

1. Title Page
2. In the Seven Woods
3. The Old Age of Queen Maeve
4. Baile and Aillinn
5. The Arrow
6. The Folly of Being Comforted
7. The Withering of the Boughs
8. Adam's Curse
9. The Song Of Red Hanrahan
10. The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water
11. Under the Moon
12. The Players Ask for a Blessing on the Psalteries and Themselves
13. The Rider From The North
14. Comment by Yeats
15. On Baile's Strand: A Play
16. Advertisements

See also

• W.B. Yeats bibliography

External links

• In the Seven Woods at Sacred-Texts.com. (online html).
• In the Seven Woods at Project Gutenberg (downloadable formats).