William Butler Yeats Poems

A SUDDEN blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
...

I THOUGHT no more was needed
Youth to polong
Than dumb-bell and foil
To keep the body young.
...

ONCE more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind.
...

Though nurtured like the sailing moon
In beauty's murderous brood,
She walked awhile and blushed awhile
And on my pathway stood
...

NOW must I these three praise --
Three women that have wrought
What joy is in my days:
One because no thought,
...

How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
...

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
...

Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
...

PICTURE and book remain,
An acre of green grass
For air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
...

THE brawling of a sparrow in the eaves,
The brilliant moon and all the milky sky,
And all that famous harmony of leaves,
Had blotted out man's image and his cry.
...