Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Deirdre
    Deirdre
    Deirdre
    Ebook42 pages16 minutes

    Deirdre

    By W. B. Yeats

    2/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    William Butler Yeats was born near Dublin in 1865, and was encouraged from a young age to pursue a life in the arts. He attended art school for a short while, but soon found that his talents and interest lay in poetry rather than painting. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, Yeats produced a vast collection of stories, songs, and poetry of Ireland's historical and legendary past. These writings helped secure for Yeats recognition as a leading proponent of Irish nationalism and Irish cultural independence. One of several dramas based on the legend of the Irish hero Cuchulain, "Dierdre" is one of Yeats' most popular one-act plays. It tells the story of Deirdre, the imaginative and otherworldly young heroine, and King Conchubar, the faithless and selfish monarch. Yeats explores themes of love, honor, deceit and self-sacrifice in this tragic but artful drama.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781420942248
    Deirdre
    Author

    W. B. Yeats

    William Butler Yeats is widely regarded as one of the finest English language poets. His eclectic output frequently draws on his chief passions for the occult and the history of his homeland. The poetry, while often mystical and romantic, can also be gritty, realistic and frequently political. Yeats was also a major playwright and founded the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

    Read more from W. B. Yeats

    Related to Deirdre

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Competition

      Aug 25, 2021

      IN COMPETITION No 270, you were invited to write a poem called The Hall. Heather Oxley began, ‘Our halls are gateways to our outside selves.’ John Oldershaw’s narrator started in medias res: ‘“It’s the hall that sells the house!”/ Said Mr Valentine,

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      It’s A Small World

      Jul 3, 2023

      It’s A Small World
      12 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Sep 4, 2018

      In London. England. Who knows why?Perhaps this rumpled guyFrom central casting or a page of Dickens.He’s taking ordinary usTo haunts of the illustrious,Where even dull pulse quickens. A red felt hat’s dark fingered brim,Food-spotted vest are—him.A mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Mar 9, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 277 you were invited to write a poem called Morning Sounds. The entries were vivid: half domestic, half outdoor. Tim Lloyd observed that ‘A bin lorry approaching in reverse/Sounds like an asthmatic seal.’ Liz Piper remembered, durin

      2 min read

    • Article

      Carningli

      Mar 22, 2024

      Carningli
      4 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Peace Comes With A Smile

      Nov 11, 2019

      Peace Comes With A Smile
      8 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Feb 9, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 276, you were invited to write a poem called The Carpet. Dan Rubinstein told of a rock band’s drummer stopping on a tour to buy some carpet to stop his bass drum wandering. Dorothy Pope’s poem was about being ‘coventrated’, carpet-b

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Power And The Passion

      Sep 19, 2021

      The Power And The Passion
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Jun 1, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 280 you were invited to write a poem called Cutting. My cue was a 19th-century Norwegian painting I’d seen of a woman cutting bread. You widened it to cutting hair and grass, being cut down to size and cutting people dead in the str

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      I’m Not Stoned, I’m Just Writing An Opera! Colm Tóibín On How He Got A Diva Fever

      Oct 19, 2022

      When I went to live in Barcelona at the age of 20 in 1975, I thought I would get to see loads of opera. The first ticket I bought was for Puccini’s La Bohème at the Liceu, starring Montserrat Caballé as Mimi. When I found my seat, however, I discover

      6 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      May 1, 2024

      IN COMPETITION No 305 you were invited to write a poem called Dawn Chorus. I liked Charles Owen’s description of the cock or rooster as ‘Hot hacksaw-headed, braggart-breasted,/ Liveried in flame’. Wally Smith was right to call ‘A jay’s call like a bl

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Nightingale

      May 1, 2019

      The Nightingale
      10 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Sep 1, 2023

      Amber accord of Shalimar arrived before her into a room set like a scene from Scheherezade: Oriental rugs, brass lamps mantled with jujube glass. She entered slightly out of breath, one end of a silk sari afloat behind her, embraced my sister, called

      2 min read

    • Article

      Charles And The Window Kids

      Dec 3, 2018

      Charles And The Window Kids
      4 min read

    • Article

      Hergest Ridge

      Jul 7, 2023

      Hergest Ridge
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Jul 26, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 295 you were invited to write a poem called Roots. Cherry MacGregor started off in medias res: ‘Has the vine died? My husband had asked,/ As we enjoyed lunch in the garden.’ Another excellent opening came from DM Davis: ‘Roots, oh m

      2 min read

    • Article

      Princess Piper

      Sep 1, 2022

      Princess Piper
      5 min read

    • Article

      Music Richard Osborne

      Sep 22, 2021

      EDINBURGH’S FALSTAFF In the late 1960s, as I waited for the curtain to go up on a matinée performance in Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, I confided to one of the city’s fabled Morningside ladies that I was tempted to move to Edinburgh, so addicted had I

      3 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Oct 20, 2021

      IN COMPETITION No 272, you were invited to write a poem called The Umbrella. The subject brought out such weird imaginings in many competitors that ordinary death seemed mundane. Katie Mallett warned against ‘Hemlocks, brollies to close down / All hu

      2 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Mermaid And The Boy

      Jun 3, 2020

      The Mermaid And The Boy
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Deirdre

    2/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Deirdre - W. B. Yeats

      DEIRDRE

      BY W. B. YEATS

      A Digireads.com Book

      Digireads.com Publishing

      Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4159-3

      Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4224-8

      This edition copyright © 2011

      Please visit www.digireads.com

      To

      Mrs. Patrick Campbell

      Who in the generosity of her genius has played my Deirdre in Dublin and London with the Abbey Company, as well as with her own people, and

      In Memory of

      Robert Gregory

      who designed the beautiful scene she played it in.

      CONTENTS

      PERSONS IN THE PLAY

      DEIRDRE

      PERSONS IN THE PLAY

      MUSICIANS

      FERGUS, an old man

      NAOISE, a young queen

      DEIRDRE, his queen

      A DARK-FACED MESSENGER

      CONCHUBAR (pronounced Conochar), the old King of Ulad, who is still strong and vigorous

      A DARK-FACED EXECUTIONER

      DEIRDRE

      [A Guest-house in a wood. It is a rough house of timber; through the doors and some of the windows one can see the great spaces of the wood, the sky dimming, night closing in. But a window to the left shows the thick leaves of a coppice; the landscape suggests silence and loneliness. There is a door to right and left, and through the side windows one can see anybody who approaches either door, a moment before he enters. In the centre, a part of the house is curtained off; the curtains are drawn. There are unlighted torches in brackets on the walls. There is, at one side, a small table with a chessboard and chessmen upon it, and a wine flagon and loaf of bread. At the other side of the room there is a brazier with a fire; two women, with musical instruments beside them, crouch about the brazier: they are comely women of about forty. Another woman, who carries a stringed instrument, enters hurriedly; she speaks, at first standing in the doorway.]

      FIRST MUSICIAN. I have a story right, my wanderers,

      That has so mixed with fable in our songs,

      That all seemed fabulous. We are come, by chance,

      Into King Conchubar's country, and this house

      Is an old guest-house built for travellers

      From the seashore to Conchubar's royal house,

      And there are certain hills among these woods,

      And there Queen Deirdre grew.

      SECOND MUSICIAN. That famous queen

      Who has been wandering with her lover, Naoise,

      Somewhere beyond the edges of the world?

      FIRST MUSICIAN. [going

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1