You who are bent, and
bald, and blind,
With a heavy heart and a
wandering mind,
Have known three
centuries, poets sing,
Of dalliance with a
demon thing
The narrator is laying the groundwork for explaining Oison's advanced age. He is also trying to explain how it is possible for an ordinary man to have lived for so long. The poem opens by drawing in the reader, telling us that there is an old man, who appears as old as his three hundred years; in case it sounds wholly unlikely that a man has lived that long, the narrator reminds us that there is written witness to this longevity, because poets have written about Oisin's century-long battle with a demon.
Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
This part of the poem is the most pastoral and reminds the reader not only of the boy's life but also of the poet's roots in Ireland as well. All of the familiar things that the boy loves will become inaccessible and alien to him. His world is vastly different to the faery world. It is almost stereotypically Irish in that we are asked to picture a farmhouse where there is a kettle on the stove ready to make tea for the family and for visitors; there is a view of the cows on the hillside from the window; there is an oatmeal chest where mice play. It is a sweet and pleasant scene and this is soon to be stolen from the child the faeries are determined to take.
She bid me take life easy, as the
grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now
am full of tears.
The Speaker is melancholy throughout the poem. and this is an example of this malady. He is thinking back over his life and what might have been. When his love offered him her love, he did not act appropriately. He is now deeply regretful. He also seems very lonely and is looking back to realize that this could have been avoided.
