Oh Queen Maeve in great dearth of joys, deep hatred I had not—
’twas Ferguson who spoke so vile, but your bad name must now rot.
For I have this unwholesome dream, his murders which greatly spun
Of what you did, what you said, flights; his firings of the gun.
I sit in wonder at the great deeds, poor and in rags my pants;
Sinner I was, and sinner I be, forget a thousand rants
Said in private,—were not for men to see; nor was it a felony
Which stirred the nations stalwart from sea to every bloody sea.
My verse had changed, your heart’s not true, your judgments, they all were wrong.
Nothing but tender love I had for you; your betrayal had sorely stung.
These dreams are torment—nails in my arms, the pain of your sharp gun.
These are not my dreams, but I have to say, they are that Ferguson’s.
For I am small, known not by you, my strong friend but ally lost;
For I never had thought you’d harm me; but friendship was paid the cost.
Rather, someone else I see, in vision who wears that rebel cloth—
It is Ferguson, he who is to be, that man eternally lost.
Further Readings:
Gore-Booth, Eva. “Scene of the Triumph of Maeve.” Poetry Nook,
https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/scene-triumph-maeve.
—. “To Maeve.” A Treasury of Irish Literature, Sterling Publishing Co.,
2017, pp. 237.
Neifert, B. K. “Daniel and the Druid.” WordPress,
https://brandon.water.blog/2019/05/23/daniels-vision-of-ferguson-and-the-druid/
Yeats, William Butler. “Fergus and the Druid.” Selected Poems And Four Plays of William
Butler Yeats. Scribner Paperback Poetry edition 1996. 1957, pp. 7 – 8.
—. “To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time.” Selected Poems And Four Plays of William
Butler Yeats. Scribner Paperback Poetry edition 1996. 1957, pp. 6.