XXVIII + 

Ballade Mystique + 

The big, red house is bare and lone + 

The stony garden waste and sere + 

With blight of breezes ocean blown + 

To pinch the wakening of the year; + 

My kindly friends with busy cheer + 

My wretchedness could plainly show. + 

They tell me I am lonely here⁠— + 

What do they know? What do they know? + 

They think that while the gables moan + 

And easements creak in winter drear + 

I should be piteously alone + 

Without the speech of comrades dear; + 

And friendly for my sake they fear, + 

It grieves them thinking of me so + 

While all their happy life is near⁠— + 

What do they know? What do they know? + 

That I have seen the Dagda’s throne + 

In sunny lands without a tear + 

And found a forest all my own + 

To ward with magic shield and spear, + 

Where, through the stately towers I rear + 

For my desire, around me go + 

Immortal shapes of beauty clear: + 

They do not know, they do not know. + 

The friends I have without a peer + 

Beyond the western ocean’s glow, + 

Wither the faerie galleys steer, + 

They do not know: how should they know? + 