O'DRISCOLL drove with a song <br />The wild duck and the drake <br />From the tall and the tufted reeds <br />Of the drear Hart Lake. <br />And he saw how the reeds grew dark <br />At the coming of night-tide, <br />And dreamed of the long dim hair <br />Of Bridget his bride. <br />He heard while he sang and dreamed <br />A piper piping away, <br />And never was piping so sad, <br />And never was piping so gay. <br />And he saw young men and young girls <br />Who danced on a level place, <br />And Bridget his bride among them, <br />With a sad and a gay face. <br />The dancers crowded about him <br />And many a sweet thing said, <br />And a young man brought him red wine <br />And a young girl white bread. <br />But Bridget drew him by the sleeve <br />Away from the merry bands, <br />To old men playing at cards <br />With a twinkling of ancient hands. <br />The bread and the wine had a doom, <br />For these were the host of the air; <br />He sat and played in a dream <br />Of her long dim hair. <br />He played with the merry old men <br />And thought not of evil chance, <br />Until one bore Bridget his bride <br />Away from the merry dance. <br />He bore her away in his atms, <br />The handsomest young man there, <br />And his neck and his breast and his arms <br />Were drowned in her long dim hair. <br />O'Driscoll scattered the cards <br />And out of his dream awoke: <br />Old men and young men and young girls <br />Were gone like a drifting smoke; <br />But he heard high up in the air <br />A piper piping away, <br />And never was piping so sad, <br />And never was piping so gay.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-host-of-the-air/
