Epigraph
The Manager of the Dun Emer Press has to thank
Mr. John Lane for permission to reprint ten poems
from Homeward Songs By The Way, and ten from
The Earth Breath.
FOR BRIAN WHEN HE IS GROWN UP
THIS HANDFUL OF THE NUTS OF
KNOWLEDGE I HAVE GATHERED ON
THE SECRET STREAMS.
I thought, beloved, to have brought to you
A gift of quietness and ease and peace,
Cooling your brow as with the mystic dew
Dropping from twilight trees.
Homeward I go not yet; the darkness grows;
Not mine the voice to still with peace divine:
From the first fount the stream of quiet flows
Through other hearts than mine.
Yet of my night I give to you the stars,
And of my sorrow here the sweetest gains,
And out of hell, beyond its iron bars,
My scorn of all its pains.