<br><br><em>The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare</em>
<em>Through the hollow of an ear;</em>
<em>Wings beating about the room;</em>
<em><em>The terror of all terrors that I bore</em> <br><br><em>The Heavens in my womb.</em><br><br></em>
<em><br>Had I not found content among the shows<br><br>Every common woman knows<br><br>Chimney corner, garden walk,<br><br>Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes<br><br>And gather all the talk?</em>
<em><br></em>
<em>What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,<br></em><em><br>The fallen star my milk sustains,<br><br>This love that makes my heart's blood stop<br><br>Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones</em>
<em>And bids my hair stand up?</em><br><br><br>W.B. Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939).<br><br><br><em>On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me</em><br><em>Seven swans a swimming,<br>Six <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/?p=781016"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">geese a laying</mark></a>,<br>Five <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/?p=781790&preview=true"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">gold rings</mark></a>,<br>Four <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/?p=780935"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">calling birds</mark></a>,<br>Three <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/?p=780856&preview=true"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">French hens</mark></a>,<br>Two <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/?p=781060&preview=true"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">turtle doves</mark></a>, and</em><br><em>A <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-first-day-of-christmas-my-true-love-sent-to-me/?swcfpc=1">partridge in a pear tree</a></mark></em>.
(Image by Sean Jefferson, courtesy <a href="https://www.messums.com/exhibitions/viewworks/871/Sean%20Jefferson%202023"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">David Messum Fine Art</mark></a>.)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats"></a>
