ABSTRACT
In WBY's version of the Deirdre story, which became his verse-play Deirdre for the Irish Literary Theatre, produced in Dublin in 1906 and London in 1908, Deirdre and her lover Naoise are arriving at the guest lodge of the Red Branch king Conchubar, accompanied by their sponsor, the king Fergus. From this, it would seem that WBY was working with the intention of structuring the chorus around the refrain of ‘maybe some one has looked upon her with love’. WBY's determination in composing his play Deirdre was to have choral lyrics in the drama which could be chanted to music. Less technical praise the poem came in a review of The Shanachie in The Gentleman's Magazine for Dec. 1906, by A.H. Bullen, who noted that ‘the three songs gives the reader from an unfinished play are quite in his best manner and full of the elusive charm that is his and his alone among living poets’.
