The Three Children: (Near Clonmel)

I MET three children on the road —
The hawthorn trees were sweet with rain,
The hills had drawn their white blinds down —
Three children on the road from town.

Their wealthy eyes in splendor mocked
Their faded rags and bare wet feet —
The King had sent his daughters out
To play at peasants in the street.

I could not see the palace walls,
The avenues were dumb with mist;
Perhaps a queen would watch and weep
For lips that she had borne and kissed.

And lost about the lonely world,
With treasury of hair and eye,
The tigers of the world will spring,
The merchants of the world will buy.

And one will sell her eyes for gold,
And one will sell her eyes for bread,
And one will watch their glory fade
Beside the looking-glass, unwed.

A hundred years will softly pass —
Yet on the Tipperary hills
The shadow of a king and queen
Will darken on the daffodils.