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Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1856-1939

"The Secret Rose"


When the procession had passed on, Costello began to follow again,
and saw from a distance the coffin laid upon a large boat, and those
about it get into other boats, and the boats move slowly over the
water to Insula Trinitatis; and after a time he saw the boats return
and their passengers mingle with the crowd upon the bank, and all
disperse by many roads and boreens. It seemed to him that Winny was
somewhere on the island smiling gently as of old, and when all had
gone he swam in the way the boats had been rowed and found the new-
made grave beside the ruined Abbey of the Holy Trinity, and threw
himself upon it, calling to Oona to come to him. Above him the square
ivy leaves trembled, and all about him white moths moved over white
flowers, and sweet odours drifted through the dim air.
He lay there all that night and through the day after, from time to
time calling her to come to him, but when the third night came he had
forgotten, worn out with hunger and sorrow, that her body lay in the
earth beneath; but only knew she was somewhere near and would not
come to him.
Just before dawn, the hour when the peasants hear his ghostly voice
crying out, his pride awoke and he called loudly: 'Winny, daughter of
Dermott of the Sheep, if you do not come to me I will go and never
return to the island of the Holy Trinity,' and before his voice had
died away a cold and whirling wind had swept over the island and he
saw many figures rushing past, women of the Sidhe with crowns of
silver and dim floating drapery; and then Oona, but no longer smiling
gently, for she passed him swiftly and angrily, and as she passed
struck him upon the face crying: 'Then go and never return.


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