Shy one, shy one, 
  Shy one of my heart,
She moves in the firelight
  Pensively apart.

She carries in the dishes,
  And lays them in a row.
To an isle in the water
  With her would I go.

She carries in the candles,
  And lights the curtained room,
Shy in the doorway
  And shy in the gloom;

And shy as a rabbit,
  Helpful and shy. 
To an isle in the water,
  With her would I fly.

Confirmed with Yeats, William Butler. The Wanderings of Oisin: Dramatic Sketches, Ballads & Lyrics, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1892, page 135.

Composition:

Set to music by Ellen Mandel , "To an Isle in the Water" [ voice and piano ]

Text Authorship:

• by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "To an isle in the water", appears in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, first published 1889

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Vers une île au milieu de l'eau", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 76