Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks at the Dancers

I found that ivory image there

Dancing with her chosen youth,

But when he would her coal-black hair

As though to strangle her, no scream

Or bodily movement did I dare,

Eyes under eyelids did so gleam;

Love is like the lion’s tooth.

When she, and though some said she played

I said that she had danced heart’s truth,

Drew a knife to strike him dead,

I could but leave him to his fate;

For no matter what is said

They had all that had their hate;

Love is like the lion’s tooth.

Did he die or did she die?

Seemed to die or died they both?

God be with the times when I

Cared not a thraneen for what chanced

So that I had the limbs to try

Such a dance as there was danced –

Love is like the lion’s tooth.

William Butler Yeats