W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). Responsibilities and Other Poems. 1916.

17. The Player Queen

(Song from an Unfinished Play)

MY mother dandled me and sang,

‘How young it is, how young!’

And made a golden cradle

That on a willow swung.

‘He went away,’ my mother sang,

‘When I was brought to bed,’

And all the while her needle pulled

The gold and silver thread.

She pulled the thread and bit the thread

And made a golden gown,

And wept because she had dreamt that I

Was born to wear a crown.

‘When she was got,’ my mother sang,

‘I heard a sea-mew cry,

And saw a flake of the yellow foam

That dropped upon my thigh.’

How therefore could she help but braid

The gold into my hair,

And dream that I should carry

The golden top of care?