Page:The wind among the reeds.pdf/89



These are personages in 'The Secret Rose;' but, with the exception of some of Hanrahan's and one of Aedh's poems, the poems are not out of that book. I have used them in this book more as principles of the mind than as actual personages. It is probable that only students of the magical tradition will understand me when I say that 'Michael Rabartes' is ﬁre reﬂected in water, and that Hanrahan is ﬁre blown by the wind, and that Aedh, whose name is not merely the Irish form of Hugh, but the Irish for ﬁre, is ﬁre burning by itself. To put it in a different way, Hanrahan is the simplicity of an imagination too changeable to gather permanent possessions, or the adoration of the shepherds; and Michael