The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 4 (of 8) / The Hour-glass. Cathleen ni Houlihan. The Golden Helmet. The Irish Dramatic Movement

by W. B. Yeats

WISE MAN.

My time to die has not come. I have my pupils. I have a young wife and children that I cannot leave. Why must I die?

ANGEL.

You must die because no souls have passed over the threshold of Heaven since you came into this country. The threshold is grassy, and the gates are rusty, and the angels that keep watch there are lonely.

WISE MAN.

Where will death bring me to?

ANGEL.

The doors of Heaven will not open to you, for you have denied the existence of Heaven; and the doors of Purgatory will not open to you, for you have denied the existence of Purgatory.

WISE MAN.

But I have also denied the existence of Hell!