The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 3 (of 8) / The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars

by W. B. Yeats

Of what I have to go out against at the beginning . . . there is so much . . . the whole world it may be.

BIDDY.
[Throwing from one cup to another and looking.]

You have no care for yourself. You have been across the sea, you are not long back. You are coming within the best day of your life.

MARTIN.

What is it? What is it I have to do?

BIDDY.

I see a great smoke, I see burning . . . there is a great smoke overhead.

MARTIN.

That means we have to burn away a great deal that men have piled up upon the earth. We must bring men once more to the wildness of the clean green earth.

BIDDY.