I <br /> <br />A speckled cat and a tame hare <br />Eat at my hearthstone <br />And seep there; <br />And both look up to me alone <br />For learning and defence <br />As I look up to Providence. <br /> <br />I start out of my sleep to think <br />Some day I may forget <br />Their food and drink; <br />Or, the house door left unshut, <br />The hare may run till it's found <br />The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound. <br /> <br />I bear a burden that might well try <br />Men that do all by rule, <br />And what can I <br />That am a wandering-witted fool <br />But pray to God that He ease <br />My great responsibilities? <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />I slept on my three-leged stool by the fire, <br />The speckled cat slept on my knee; <br />We never thought to enquire <br />Where the brown hare might be, <br />And whether the door were shut. <br />Who knows how she drank the wind <br />Stretched up on two legs from the mat, <br />Before she had settled her mind <br />To drum with her heel and to leap? <br />Had I but awakened from sleep <br />And called her name, she had heard, <br />It may be, and not have stirred, <br />That now, it may be, has found <br />The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/two-songs-of-a-fool/
