William Butler Yeats (1865-1939 / County Dublin / Ireland)

''Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.''

''Boughs have their fruit and blossom
At all times of the year;
Rivers are running over
With red beer and brown beer.''

''All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbor knows.
Lord, what would they say
Did their Catullus walk that way?''

''Grandfather sang it under the gallows:
"Hear, gentlemen, ladies, and all mankind:
Money is good and a girl might be better,
But good strong blows are delights to the mind."
There, standing on the cart,
He sang it from his heart.''

''When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.''

''For even daughters of the swan can share
Something of every paddler's heritage—''

''For certain minutes at the least
That crafty demon and that loud beast
That plague me day and night
Ran out of my sight;
Though I had long perned in the gyre,
Between my hatred and desire....''

''I know, although when looks meet
I tremble to the bone,
The more I leave the door unlatched
The sooner love is gone....''

''An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick,''

''They unhook their heavy swords
From golden and silver boughs;
But all that are killed in battle
Awaken to life again.''