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The Villanelle Charge
by
William Butler Yeats and Cynthia Joyce Clay
I
have now given all my reasons why I believe "The Villanelle
Charge" was initially composed by Yeats along with my
speculations as to what the history of the possible sources was.
What remains to be done now is to give the poem that spanned more
than a century in its composition and unites two millennium in a
world view that is counter to Christianity. In the tradition of
Shakespeare who took other people’s plays and rewrote them
and signed only his name; and of Wordsworth who took a charming
passage about a rainbow from his sister’s journal, turned it
into a poem, and signed his own name; and of Yeats, who took his
wife’s automatic writings and turned them into his work A
Vision (Yeats,
“1928 and later” p. 8)
signing only his name as author, I shall lay claim to a hand in
this poem, though not quite so greedily. I recognize that Yeats
has better name recognition than I do; that modern ethical
considerations dictate that the habits of these gentlemen were
not of the greatest integrity; and that to co-author a poem with,
or reconstruct a poem of, a Nobel Laureate is no small plume.
I now take great pleasure in presenting
The Villanelle Charge
by William Butler Yeats and Cynthia Joyce Clay
Once in the month and better it be
When the moon is full, meet Me.
Assemble ye in some secret place
To adore the Spirit of Me
Who am the Queen of all Witcheries,
For I am a gracious Goddess.
I give joy on earth, certainty
Not faith while in life, and upon death
Peace, unutterable rest.
Mine is the spirit’s ecstasy,
I demand aught in sacrifice,
For I am a gracious Goddess.
Love and mirth are my rituals,
For I am the beginning and the end
Of the circle of rebirth.
For from me all things flow,
And to Me all things must go.
Arise and come unto Me,
For I am a gracious Goddess.
September, 2000
copyright 2000 by Cynthia Joyce Clay all rights reserved
To other works of non-fiction and fiction by Cynthia Joyce Clay
Please
support these pages by purchasing my science fiction novel,Zollocco: A Novel of
Another Universe and my collection of sf, fantasy, and myth New Myths of the Feminine Divine