Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

Parnell's Funeral (Author: William Butler Yeats)

part 2

1. The rest I pass, one sentence I unsay.
   Had de Valera eaten Parnell's heart
   No loose-lipped demagogue had won the day.
   No civil rancour torn the land apart.
• Had Cosgrave eaten Parnell's heart, the land's
  Imagination had been satisfied,
  Or lacking that, government in such hands.
  O'Higgins its sole statesman had not died.
• Had even O'Duffy — but I name no more —
  Their school a crowd, his master solitude;
  Through Jonathan Swift's clark grove he passed, and there
  plucked bitter wisdom that enriched his blood.