STRAY VERSES Love like heat and cold Pierces and passes soon, Jealousy pierces too But stays in the marrow bone. A young man at his father's fire Lords it and takes the best, A old man at his son's fire Covers his knees with his breast. 'Tis unknown Who will sleep with Edan Baun, All that Edan Baun will own Is that she never sleeps alone. Conor the king As little minds Packing his poke With Danish spoil As in the woods In autumn God The russet apples He lets fall. 'Tis my bitter grief the day doesn't last a year And boughs forever drop honey on teeming land That light of heart I might sit on a bank again My boy at my side and a green bough in his hand. The bird that shouts from the willow Is a black and boisterous fellow, A beak sharp and yellow, A music wild and mellow. A little bird Has let one note Fly from the tip of his gold beak; From the green bough The blackbird now Tosses his cry Across the lake Source: Lords and Commons, 1938, Cuala Press (reprint 1971), pp. 39-40