William Butler Yeats Poems

I

I sought a theme and sought for it in vain,
I sought it daily for six weeks or so.
...

WHAT woman hugs her infant there?
Another star has shot an ear.
...

SURELY among a rich man s flowering lawns,
Amid the rustle of his planted hills,
Life overflows without ambitious pains;
And rains down life until the basin spills,
...

NOR dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
...

THE cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
...

I HAD this thought a while ago,
'My darling cannot understand
What I have done, or what would do
In this blind bitter land.'
...

The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
...

I BRING you with reverent hands
The books of my numberless dreams,
White woman that passion has worn
As the tide wears the dove-grey sands,
...

THERE is grey in your hair.
Young men no longer suddenly catch their breath
When you are passing;
...

WHY should not old men be mad?
Some have known a likely lad
That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
Turn to a drunken journalist;
...