{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/the-host-of-the-air",
 "title": "The Host of the Air",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "W. B. Yeats",
 "poet_slug": "w-b-yeats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Wind Among the Reeds",
 "book_slug": "the-wind-among-the-reeds",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "The Wind Among the Reeds",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1899,
  "venue": "The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/windamongreeds00yeatrich"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49609",
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   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/fE8wAQAAMAAJ",
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   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/TFAwAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Irish_Monthly/EMoaAAAAYAAJ",
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  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
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  "n_stanzas": 11,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O’Driscoll drove with a song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wild duck and the drake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the tall and the tufted reeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the drear Hart Lake.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And he saw how the reeds grew dark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the coming of night tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dreamed of the long dim hair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Bridget his bride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He heard while he sang and dreamed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A piper piping away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never was piping so sad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never was piping so gay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And he saw young men and young girls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who danced on a level place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Bridget his bride among them,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a sad and a gay face.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The dancers crowded about him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many a sweet thing said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a young man brought him red wine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a young girl white bread.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Bridget drew him by the sleeve,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Away from the merry bands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To old men playing at cards",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a twinkling of ancient hands.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The bread and the wine had a doom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For these were the host of the air;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sat and played in a dream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her long dim hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He played with the merry old men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thought not of evil chance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until one bore Bridget his bride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Away from the merry dance.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He bore her away in his arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The handsomest young man there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his neck and his breast and his arms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were drowned in her long dim hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O’Driscoll scattered the cards",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And out of his dream awoke:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old men and young men and young girls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were gone like a drifting smoke;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But he heard high up in the air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A piper piping away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never was piping so sad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never was piping so gay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}