The Ballad of the Foxhunter

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1889from Crossways48 lines

Earlier titled "The Ballad of a Foxhunter"

“Lay me in a cushioned chair;Carry me, ye four,With cushions here and cushions there,To see the world once more.

“To stable and to kennel go;Bring what’s there to bring;Lead my Lollard to and fro,Or gently in a ring.

“Put the chair upon the grass:Bring Rody and his hounds,That I may contented passFrom these earthly bounds.”

His eyelids droop, his head falls low,His old eyes cloud with dreams;The sun upon all things that growFalls in sleepy streams.

Brown Lollard treads upon the lawn,And to the armchair goes,And now the old man’s dreams are gone,He smooths the long brown nose.

And now moves many a pleasant tongueUpon his wasted hands,For leading aged hounds and youngThe huntsman near him stands.

“Huntsman, Rody, blow the horn,And make the hills reply.”The huntsman loosens on the mornA gay wandering cry.

Fire is in the old man’s eyes,His fingers move and sway,And when the wandering music diesThey hear him feebly say,

“Huntsman, Rody, blow the horn,And make the hills reply.”“I cannot blow upon my horn,I can but weep and sigh.”

Servants round his cushioned placeAre with new sorrow wrung;And hounds are gazing on his face,Both aged hounds and young.

One blind hound only lies apartOn the sun-smitten grass;He holds deep commune with his heart:The moments pass and pass;

The blind hound with a mournful dinLifts slow his wintry head;The servants bear the body in;The hounds wail for the dead.

Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.

In brief

Summary

A dying old foxhunter asks to see his horse and hounds once more.

An old foxhunter, close to death, asks his servants to carry him out in a cushioned chair so he can see the world once more, with his horse Lollard and his hounds brought to him. He dozes in the sun, wakes as the horse nuzzles him, and feels the hounds lick his hands. He calls on Rody, the huntsman, to blow the horn, and for a moment fire returns to his eyes. When he asks again, Rody cannot blow: he can only weep. The old man dies, the servants carry him in, and the hounds wail, led by one old blind hound who has lain apart.

Lines to remember

Huntsman, Rody, blow the horn,

I can but weep and sigh.

The hounds wail for the dead.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 12The last request
The old man gives orders in his own voice: carry him out "With cushions here and cushions there", fetch Lollard from the stable and the hounds from the kennel, put his chair on the grass. He wants to "contented pass" from "these earthly bounds", dying among the things he loved.
Lines 13 to 24Horse and hounds
He drifts into sleep as the sun falls "in sleepy streams". Brown Lollard walks up to the armchair, the old man wakes and "smooths the long brown nose", and the hounds lick "his wasted hands". Rody the huntsman stands near with the old and young hounds.
Lines 25 to 32The horn sounds
He tells Rody to "blow the horn" and "make the hills reply". The horn loosens "A gay wandering cry" into the morning, and for a moment the old man revives: "Fire is in the old man's eyes" and "His fingers move and sway". Then the music dies away.
Lines 33 to 40Rody cannot blow
He repeats the command word for word, but now the reply is "I cannot blow upon my horn": he "can but weep and sigh". The repetition makes the change sharp: the huntsman sees his master is dying. Servants and hounds gather round, "with new sorrow wrung".
Lines 41 to 48The blind hound
One old blind hound lies apart on "the sun-smitten grass", holding "deep commune with his heart" while "The moments pass and pass". Then he lifts "his wintry head" with a mournful din. The servants carry the body in, and the last line gives the hounds the final word: they "wail for the dead".

Themes

A good death

The old man's wish is to "contented pass", and the poem grants it. He dies outdoors in the sun, among his horse, his hounds and his servants, after hearing the horn one last time. Death is sad here but gentle and ordered, framed by the life he loved.

Loyalty

The bond between master, animals and servants carries the poem. Lollard walks to the chair unbidden; the hounds lick "his wasted hands"; Rody weeps rather than blow. The old blind hound, who "holds deep commune with his heart" and knows the moment of death, gives the animals a grief as deep as any person's.

Age

Old age is everywhere: "his old eyes", "wasted hands", "aged hounds and young", the blind hound's "wintry head". The horn briefly brings back youth, "Fire is in the old man's eyes", but the pairing of old and young hounds reminds us that the hunt will go on without him.

Context

The poem first appeared in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in January 1889 as "The Ballad of a Foxhunter", and in 1892 it was titled "The Ballad of the Old Foxhunter". Yeats revised it in 1925. He later grouped it with his other early lyrics under the heading "Crossways".

With "The Ballad of Father O'Hart" and "The Ballad of Moll Magee", it is one of three simple story poems in the group, where the young Yeats tried out the plain narrative style of the traditional ballad on scenes of Irish country life.

Form

Twelve quatrains rhymed ABAB, in alternating lines of four and three beats, the traditional ballad measure. Speech in quotation marks moves the story forward, and the repeated command in lines 25 to 26 and 33 to 34 works like a refrain whose second answer is heartbreaking.

Revised in 1925 (Yeats's note). 1892 title 'The Ballad of the Old Foxhunter'; 1889 'The Ballad of a Foxhunter'.