The Land of Heart's Desire

by W. B. (William Butler) Yeats

"The Land of Heart's Desire" by W. B. Yeats is a play first performed in 1894. In this theatrical lament, a mysterious faery child arrives at the home of newlyweds Maire and Shawn Bruin. The child denounces God and tempts the listless Maire with visions of eternal youth and mindless joy in the faery realm. As the family struggles to keep Maire grounded in reality, she must choose between mortal life and the seductive promise of immortality in the otherworld.