Responsibilities, and other poems

by W. B. Yeats

That's it, and then he cannot blame us for the choice.

First Pupil

There, I have chosen. Fool, keep still—and if what's wise is strange and sounds like nonsense, we've made a good choice.

Fifth Pupil

The Master has come.

Fool

Will anybody give a penny to a fool?

[One of the pupils draws back the stage curtain showing the Master sitting at his desk. There is an hour-glass upon his desk or in a bracket on the wall. One pupil puts the book before him.

First Pupil

We have chosen the passage for the lesson, Master. 'There are two living countries, one visible and one invisible, and when it is summer there, it is winter here, and when it is November with us, it is lambing-time there.'