Particularly had she loved and learned the strange, musical Irish poetry
of William Butler Yeats. Perhaps because the Irish believed in fairies
Polly did too, although she called her fairies by other names.
Now all alone in the yellow fields she recited the closing lines of "The
Land of Heart's Desire," doing her level best to put into it some little
portion of its mystical beauty. She was not altogether successful
because she was only a girl without any training or knowledge of her
art, but perhaps because of her youth she was less afraid and filled
with a sincerer enthusiasm.
"The wind blows out of the gates of the day, The wind blows over the
lonely of heart, And the lonely of heart is withered away While the
faeries dance in a place apart, Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air; For they hear the wind laugh
and murmur and sing Of a land where even the old are fair, And even the
wise are merry of tongue; But I heard a reed of Coolaney say, When the
wind has laughed and murmured and sung, The lonely of heart is withered
away."
And then, after having repeated her verse three times and feeling that
she was no nearer than at first to expressing its beauty, Polly found
herself through the fields and after passing by a small stretch of
woodlands would be out on the high road and therefore no longer alone.
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