Page:In the Seven Woods, Yeats, 1903.djvu/49

 And the other light in the hand. A trick I learnt

When I was learning arms in Aoife's country.

FIRST YOUNG KING. What kind of woman was that Aoife?

CUCHULLAIN. Comely.

FIRST YOUNG KING. But I have heard that she was never married,

And yet that's natural, for I have never known

A fighting woman, but made her favours cheap,

Or mocked at love till she grew sandy dry.

CUCHULLAIN. What manner of woman do you like the best?

A gentle or a fierce.

FIRST YOUNG KING. A gentle surely.

CUCHULLAIN. I think that a fierce woman's better, a woman

That breaks away when you have thought her won,

For I'd be fed and hungry at one time.

I think that all deep passion is but a kiss

In the mid battle, and a difficult peace

'Twixt oil and water, candles and dark night,

Hill-side and hollow, the hot-footed sun,

And the cold sliding slippery-footed moon,

A brief forgiveness between opposites

That have been hatreds for three times the age 37