The Host of the Air

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1899from The Wind Among the Reeds44 lines

O’Driscoll drove with a songThe wild duck and the drakeFrom the tall and the tufted reedsOf the drear Hart Lake.

And he saw how the reeds grew darkAt the coming of night tide,And dreamed of the long dim hairOf Bridget his bride.

He heard while he sang and dreamedA piper piping away,And never was piping so sad,And never was piping so gay.

And he saw young men and young girlsWho danced on a level placeAnd Bridget his bride among them,With a sad and a gay face.

The dancers crowded about him,And many a sweet thing said,And a young man brought him red wineAnd a young girl white bread.

But Bridget drew him by the sleeve,Away from the merry bands,To old men playing at cardsWith a twinkling of ancient hands.

The bread and the wine had a doom,For these were the host of the air;He sat and played in a dreamOf her long dim hair.

He played with the merry old menAnd thought not of evil chance,Until one bore Bridget his brideAway from the merry dance.

He bore her away in his arms,The handsomest young man there,And his neck and his breast and his armsWere drowned in her long dim hair.

O’Driscoll scattered the cardsAnd out of his dream awoke:Old men and young men and young girlsWere gone like a drifting smoke;

But he heard high up in the airA piper piping away,And never was piping so sad,And never was piping so gay.

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

In brief

Summary

A young man is lured into a game while faeries steal his bride.

O'Driscoll is driving wild duck from the reeds of Hart Lake at nightfall, singing and dreaming of his bride, Bridget. He hears a piper, sad and gay at once, and sees young people dancing, Bridget among them. The dancers offer him red wine and white bread, but Bridget draws him away to old men playing cards. The food carries "a doom": these are "the host of the air", the faeries. While he plays, lost in a dream of her hair, the handsomest young man carries Bridget off. When O'Driscoll scatters the cards and wakes, everyone has vanished like smoke, and only the piping sounds, high in the air.

Lines to remember

And never was piping so sad,

And never was piping so gay.

Were gone like a drifting smoke;

Line by line

Lines 1 to 8At Hart Lake
O'Driscoll drives the wild duck and drake from the reeds of "the drear Hart Lake". As the reeds darken with nightfall, he dreams of the "long dim hair" of "Bridget his bride". That hair will return at each turn of the story.
Lines 9 to 16The piper and the dance
He hears a piper whose music is at once sad and gay, and sees young men and girls who dance "on a level place". Bridget is among them "With a sad and a gay face", a first hint that she already belongs half to the other world.
Lines 17 to 24Wine, bread and cards
The dancers crowd round him with sweet words, and a young man and girl bring him "red wine" and "white bread". Bridget draws him by the sleeve, away from the merry bands, to old men playing cards "With a twinkling of ancient hands".
Lines 25 to 28The host of the air
The narrator steps in: the bread and wine "had a doom", for these are "the host of the air", the faeries. O'Driscoll sits and plays, lost in a dream "Of her long dim hair".
Lines 29 to 36Bridget taken
Absorbed in the game, he thinks "not of evil chance" until one of them carries Bridget away, "The handsomest young man there". His neck, breast and arms are "drowned in her long dim hair", so the stranger has what O'Driscoll only dreamed of.
Lines 37 to 44Gone like smoke
O'Driscoll scatters the cards "And out of his dream awoke". The whole company is "gone like a drifting smoke". The last stanza repeats the piper's lines from the third, but now the music comes from "high up in the air", out of reach.

Themes

Faery abduction

The story follows the old Irish belief that the faeries steal young brides away. Everything in it keeps to folk rules: food that dooms whoever eats it, a dance on a level place, a vanishing like smoke. The host is charming and never violent, which makes the loss more eerie: Bridget is simply carried "Away from the merry dance".

Dream and waking

O'Driscoll dreams all through the poem: of Bridget's hair at the lake, and again "in a dream" at cards. His dreaming is what lets the faeries take her. Only when he scatters the cards does he wake, too late. Longing, the poem suggests, can slide into a trance that costs a man what he loves.

Joy and sorrow

The piper's music is "so sad" and "so gay" at once, and Bridget has "a sad and a gay face". The faery world mixes the two feelings in a way human life keeps apart. The repeated lines make that double music the poem's frame, sounding near its start and at its end.

Context

The poem appeared in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). It is one of Yeats's retellings of Irish faery lore in ballad form, drawing on the country belief that the faeries, the "host of the air", carried off young brides, and that eating their food bound a mortal to them.

Form

Eleven quatrains of short, three-beat lines rhymed ABCB, in the manner of a folk ballad. Several stanzas end on a clipped line ("Of Bridget his bride"). Refrains bind the story together: the sad and gay piping in stanzas three and eleven, and the "long dim hair" that returns three times.