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"For certainly he sank into his grave
His senses and his heart unsatisfied,
And made—being poor, ailing and ignorant,
Shut out from all the luxury of the world,
The coarse-bred son of a livery-stable keeper—
Luxuriant song."
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "Ego Dominus Tuus." |
"On their own feet they came, or on shipboard,
Camelback, horseback, ass-back, mule-back,
Old civilizations put to the sword.
Then they and their wisdom went to rack:"
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet. Lapis Lazuli (l. 25-28). . .
The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Richard J. Finneran, ed. (1989) Macmillan. |
""God's fire upon the wane,
A diagram hung there instead,
More women born than men.""
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "Statistics." |
"I passed a little further on and heard a peacock say:
Who made the grass and made the worms and made my feathers gay,
He is a monstrous peacock, and He waveth all the night
His languid tail above us, lit with myriad spots of light."
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "The Indian upon God." |
"Whether they knew or not,
Goldsmith and Burke, Swift and the Bishop of Cloyne
All hated Whiggery; but what is Whiggery?
A levelling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of drunkard's eye."
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "The Seven Sages." |
"Unquiet wanderer
Draw the Glasnevin coverlet anew
About your head till the dust stops your ear,
The time for you to taste of that salt breath
And listen at the corners has not come;
You had enough of sorrow before death—"
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet. To a Shade (l. 20-25). . .
The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Richard J. Finneran, ed. (1989) Macmillan. |
"Overcome the Empyrean; hurl
Heaven and Earth out of their places,
That in the same calamity
Brother and brother, friend and friend,
Family and family,
City and city may contend."
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "XI. From the 'Antigone'...." |
"The elaborate star-light throws a reflection
On the dark stream,
Till all the eddies gleam;
And thereupon there comes that scream
From terrified, invisible beast or bird:
Image of poignant recollection."
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "An Image from a Past Life." |
"The rhetorician would deceive his neighbours,
The sentimentalist himself; while art
Is but a vision of reality.
What portion in the world can the artist have
Who has awakened from the common dream
But dissipation and despair?"
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. "Ego Dominus Tuus." |
"All perform their tragic play,
There struts Hamlet, there is Lear,
That's Ophelia, that Cordelia;"
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet. Lapis Lazuli (l. 9-11). . .
The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Richard J. Finneran, ed. (1989) Macmillan. |
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