Responsibilities, and other poems

by W. B. Yeats

Wise Man

Tell me quickly.

Fool

I said, 'Teigue knows everything, not even the green-eyed cats and the hares that milk the cows have Teigue's wisdom'; but Teigue will not speak, he says nothing.

Wise Man

Speak, speak, for underneath the cover there

The sand is running from the upper glass,

And when the last grain's through, I shall be lost.

Fool

I will not speak. I will not tell you what is in my mind. I will not tell you what is in my bag. You might steal away my thoughts. I met a bodach on the road yesterday, and he said, 'Teigue, tell me how many pennies are in your bag; I will wager three pennies that there are not twenty pennies in your bag; let me put in my hand and count them.' But I gripped the bag the tighter, and when I go to sleep at night I hide the bag where nobody knows.