William Butler Yeats

A Bronze Head HERE at right of the entrance this bronze head, A Coat I MADE my song a coat A Cradle Song THE angels are stooping A Crazed Girl THAT crazed girl improvising her music. Adam's Curse WE sat together at one summer's end, A Deep Sworn Vow Others because you did not keep A Dialogue Of Self And Soul I A Dramatic Poem First Sailor. Has he not led us into these waste seas A Dream Of Death I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place A Drunken Man's Praise Of Sobriety COME swish around, my pretty punk, Aedh gives his Beloved certain Rhymes Fasten your hair with a golden pin, Aedh Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers I dreamed that I stood in a valley, and amid sighs, Aedh Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths, A Faery Song Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania, A First Confession I admit the briar A Friend's Illness SICKNESS brought me this After Long Silence Speech after long silence; it is right, Against Unworthy Praise O HEART, be at peace, because A Last Confession What lively lad most pleasured me All Souls' Night MIDNIGHT has come, and the great Christ Church Bell All Things Can Tempt Me ALL things can tempt me from this craft of verse: A Lover's Quarrel Among the Fairies A moonlight moor. Fairies leading a child. Alternative Song For The Severed Head... Saddle and ride, I heard a man say, A Man Young And Old - Complete I A Man Young And Old: I. First Love Though nurtured like the sailing moon A Man Young And Old: II. Human Dignity Like the moon her kindness is, A Man Young And Old: III. The Mermaid A mermaid found a swimming lad, A Man Young And Old: IV. The Death Of The Hare I have pointed out the yelling pack, A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old I have old women's secrets now A Man Young And Old: VI. His Memories We should be hidden from their eyes, A Man Young And Old: VIII. Summer And Spring We sat under an old thorn-tree A Man Young And Old: VII. The Friends Of His Youth Laughter not time destroyed my voice A Man Young And Old: V. The Empty Cup A crazy man that found a cup, A Man Young And Old: X. His Wildness O bid me mount and sail up there A Man Young And Old: XI... Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span; A Meditation in Time of War For one throb of the Artery, A Memory Of Youth THE moments passed as at a play; A Model For The Laureate ON thrones from China to Peru Among School Children I WALK through the long schoolroom questioning; An Acre Of Grass PICTURE and book remain, An Appointment BEING out of heart with government Anashuya And Vijaya A little Indian temple in the Golden Age. Around it a garden; A Nativity WHAT woman hugs her infant there? An Image From A Past Life He. Never until this night have I been stirred. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death I know that I shall meet my fate Another Song Of A Fool This great purple butterfly, A Poet To His Beloved I BRING you with reverent hands A Prayer For My Daughter ONCE more the storm is howling, and half hid A Prayer For My Son BID a strong ghost stand at the head A Prayer For Old Age GOD guard me from those thoughts men think A Prayer On Going Into My House GOD grant a blessing on this tower and cottage Are You Content? I CALL on those that call me son, A Song I THOUGHT no more was needed A Song From 'The Player Queen' My mother dandled me and sang, A Statesman's Holiday I lived among great houses, A Stick Of Incense Whence did all that fury come? At Algeciras - A Meditaton Upon Death The heron-billed pale cattle-birds At Galway Races THERE where the course is, A Thought From Propertius SHE might, so noble from head At The Abbey Theatre DEAR Craoibhin Aoibhin, look into our case. A Woman homer Sung IF any man drew near A Woman Young And Old I Beautiful Lofty Things BEAUTIFUL lofty things: O'Leary's noble head; Before The World Was Made If I make the lashes dark Beggar To Beggar Cried "TIME to put off the world and go somewhere Blood And The Moon BLESSED be this place, Broken Dreams THERE is grey in your hair. Brown Penny I WHISPERED, "I am too young," Byzantium THE unpurged images of day recede; Chosen The lot of love is chosen. I learnt that much Church And State HERE is fresh matter, poet, Colonel Martin THE Colonel went out sailing, Colonus' Praise Chorus. Come praise Colonus' horses, and come praise Come Gather Round Me, Parnellites COME gather round me, Parnellites, Consolation O but there is wisdom Coole Park, 1929 I meditate upon a swallow's flight, Coole Park And Ballylee I MEDITATE upon a swallow's flight, Coole Park And Ballylee, 1931 Under my window-ledge the waters race, Crazy Jane And Jack The Journeyman I know, although when looks meet Crazy Jane And The Bishop Bring me to the blasted oak Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks At The Dancers I found that ivory image there Crazy Jane On God That lover of a night Crazy Jane On The Day Of Judgment 'Love is all Crazy Jane On The Mountain I AM tired of cursing the Bishop, Crazy Jane Reproved I care not what the sailors say: Crazy Jane Talks With The Bishop I met the Bishop on the road Cuchulain Comforted A MAN that had six mortal wounds, a man Cuchulain's Fight with the Sea A man came slowly from the setting sun, Death NOR dread nor hope attend Demon And Beast FOR certain minutes at the least Down By The Salley Gardens DOWN by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; Drinking Song Wine comes in at the mouth Easter 1916 I have met them at close of day Ego Dominus Tuus Hic. On the grey sand beside the shallow stream Ephemera "YOUR eyes that once were never weary of mine Fallen Majesty Although crowds gathered once if she but showed her face, Father And Child She hears me strike the board and say Fergus And The Druid Fergus . This whole day have I followed in the rocks, For Anne Gregory "NEVER shall a young man, Fragments I Friends NOW must I these three praise -- From A Full Moon In March PARNELL'S FUNERAL From The 'Antigone' Overcome -- O bitter sweetness, Girl's Song I went out alone Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors WHAT they undertook to do He Bids His Beloved Be At Peace I HEAR the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake, He Hears The Cry Of The Sedge I WANDER by the edge He Mourns For The Change... Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns? Her Anxiety Earth in beauty dressed Her Dream I dreamed as in my bed I lay, He Remembers Forgotten Beauty When my arms wrap you round I press He Reproves The Curlew O CURLEW, cry no more in the air, Her Praise SHE is foremost of those that I would hear praised. Her Triumph I did the dragon's will until you came Her Vision In The Wood Dry timber under that rich foliage, He Tells Of The Perfect Beauty O CLOUD-PALE eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes, He Thinks Of His Past Greatness... I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young He Thinks of Those Who Have Spoken Ill of His Beloved Half close your eyelids, loosen your hair, He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead WERE you but lying cold and dead, High Talk PROCESSIONS that lack high stilts have nothing that His Bargain Who talks of Plato's spindle; His Confidence Undying love to buy His Dream I swayed upon the gaudy stem His Phoenix THERE is a queen in China, or maybe it's in Spain, Hound Voice BECAUSE we love bare hills and stunted trees I Am Of Ireland 'I am of Ireland, Imitated From The Japanese A MOST astonishing thing -- In Memory Of Alfred Pollexfen FIVE-AND-TWENTY years have gone In Memory Of Eva Gore-Booth And Con Markiewicz The light of evening, Lissadell, In Memory of Major Robert Gregory Now that we're almost settled in our house In Tara's Halls A MAN I praise that once in Tara's Hals In The Seven Woods I HAVE heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods Into The Twilight OUT-WORN heart, in a time out-worn, Introductory Lines (The Shadowy Waters) I walked among the seven woods of Coole: John Kinsella's Lament For Mr. Mary Moore A BLOODY and a sudden end, King And No King WOULD it were anything but merely voice!' Lapis Lazuli I have heard that hysterical women say Leda And The Swan A SUDDEN blow: the great wings beating still Lines Written In Dejection WHEN have I last looked on Long-Legged Fly THAT civilisation may not sink, Love's Loneliness Old fathers, great-grandfathers, Love Song My love, we will go, we will go, I and you, Lullaby Beloved, may your sleep be sound Mad As The Mist And Snow Bolt and bar the shutter, Maid Quiet WHERE has Maid Quiet gone to, Man And The Echo Man. In a cleft that's christened Alt Meditations In Time Of Civil War I Meeting Hidden by old age awhile Memory ONE had a lovely face, Men Improve With The Years I AM worn out with dreams; Michael Robartes and the Dancer He. Opinion is not worth a rush; Mohini Chatterjee I ASKED if I should pray. Never Give All The Heart NEVER give all the heart, for love News For The Delphic Oracle THERE all the golden codgers lay, Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen MANY ingenious lovely things are gone No Second Troy WHY should I blame her that she filled my days O Do Not Love Too Long SWEETHEART, do not love too long: Oil And Blood IN tombs of gold and lapis lazuli Old Memory O THOUGHT, fly to her when the end of day Old Tom Again Things out of perfection sail, On A Picture Of A Black Centaur By Edmund Dulac YOUR hooves have stamped at the black margin of the wood, On A Political Prisoner SHE that but little patience knew, On Being Asked For A War Poem I THINK it better that in times like these On Hearing That The Students Of Our New University... Where, where but here have pride and Truth, On Those That Hated The 'Playboy Of The Western World,' 1907 Once, when midnight smote the air, On Woman MAY God be praised for woman Owen Aherne And His Dancers A STRANGE thing surely that my Heart, when love had come unsought Parnell PARNELL came down the road, he said to a cheering man: Parnell's Funeral I Parting He. Dear, I must be gone Paudeen INDIGNANT at the fumbling wits, the obscure spite Peace AH, that Time could touch a form Politics HOW can I, that girl standing there, Presences THIS night has been so strange that it seemed Quarrel In Old Age WHERE had her sweetness gone? Reconciliation SOME may have blamed you that you took away Red Hanrahan's Song About Ireland THE old brown thorn-trees break in two high over Cummen Strand, Remorse For Intemperate Speech I ranted to the knave and fool, Responsibilities - Closing While I, that reed-throated whisperer Responsibilities - Introduction Pardon, old fathers, if you still remain Roger Casement I SAY that Roger Casement Running To Paradise As I came over Windy Gap Sailing to Byzantium That is no country for old men. The young September 1913 What need you, being come to sense, Shepherd And Goatherd Shepherd. That cry's from the first cuckoo of the year. Sixteen Dead Men O BUT we talked at large before Slim adolescence that a nymph has stripped III Solomon And The Witch AND thus declared that Arab lady: Solomon To Sheba SANG Solomon to Sheba, Spilt Milk WE that have done and thought, Statistics "THOSE Platonists are a curse,' he said, Stream And Sun At Glendalough THROUGH intricate motions ran Supernatural Songs Ribh at the Tomb of Baile and Aillinn Sweet Dancer THE girl goes dancing there Swift's Epitaph SWIFT has sailed into his rest; Symbols A STORM BEATEN old watch-tower, That The Night Come SHE lived in storm and strife, The Apparitions BECAUSE there is safety in derision The Arrow I THOUGHT of your beauty, and this arrow, The Ballad of Father Gilligan The old priest Peter Gilligan The Ballad Of Father O'Hart GOOD Father John O'Hart The Ballad Of Moll Magee COME round me, little childer; The Ballad Of The Foxhunter 'Lay me in a cushioned chair; The Balloon Of The Mind HANDS, do what you're bid: The Black Fool's Speech No. I wont listen any more. Go away. What is that you are saying? (Goes R. I. E. & speaks as if talking to somebody) No. I'll have my own way. I told you from the first I was go[ing] to. Yes I'm quite ready to take the consequences (Goes C) He's always interfearing. As if one could make any kind of enchantment worth looking at, if one had always to be thinking of him (at C, facing audience) The Stage Manager says I've got to make an enchantment for you -- something wonderful -- Something unlike anything you ever juggle for you. That I'm to cause a vision to come before your eyes, but he doesn't want to let me please myself. He says it must be simple, easy to understand, and all about real human beings but I am going to please myself this time (going halfway to the side). It's no use shaking you hand at me there. I am going to do just as I like. What is the use of getting the black jester out of the waste places if he is not to do what he like (returns to C). These are my friends that I have hung around my neck. Some of them I picked up on the wayside, some of them I made with a jack knife. I am going to make you dream about them & about me. I am going to wave my fingers & you will begin to dream. These two are Aengus and Edaine. They are spirits & whenever I am in love it is not I them in Love but Aengus who is always looking for Edaine through somebody's eyes. You will read about them in the old Irish books. She was the wife of Midher another spirit in the hill but he grew jealous of her & he put her out of doors, & Aengus hid her in a tower of glass. That is why I carry the two of them in a glass bottle. (holds bottle in front of me) O Aengus! O Edaine! be kind to me when I am in love & to everybody in this audience when they are in love & make us all believe that it is not you but us ourselves that love. These others -- the black dog, the red dog & the white dog. -- I am always afraid of them. Sometimes the black dog gets on my back, though [end p. 303]I have not been juggling but I will not talk about him for he was very wicked. I do not know the red dog from myself whenever I am angry or excited or running about. And it is only when I escapt from him & [?] the black dog, and the pale dog leads me where i would go. that I would go to everything impossible and lasting To the place where these poor flowers that I have round my head can never die because they are made out of precious stones. They too are myself but that is a great mystery. The dogs, and the little king & queen in the bottle & the flowers, they are all going to be in the dream that you are going to dream presently, but they will be great & terrible & my birds will be there too (takes out birds) These sea birds that I shall be like when I get out of the body & this eagle that carries me messages from beyond the body & this jewsharp that I play on when my birds & my beasts wont talk to me & I too shall be there, there in the dream & things that I would all that I did long ago or that I would like to do. I would like to lead...(2) The Black Tower SAY that the men of the old black tower, The Blessed CUMHAL called out, bending his head, The Cap And Bells THE jester walked in the garden: The Cat And The Moon THE cat went here and there The Chambermaid's First Song HOW came this ranger The Chambermaid's Second Song From pleasure of the bed, The Choice The intellect of man is forced to choose The Circus Animals' Desertion I The Cloak, The Boat And The Shoes 'What do you make so fair and bright?' The Cold Heaven SUDDENLY I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven The Collar-Bone Of A Hare WOULD I could cast a sad on the water The Coming Of Wisdom With Time THOUGH leaves are many, the root is one; The Countess Cathleen In Paradise ALL the heavy days are over; The Crazed Moon CRAZED through much child-bearing The Curse Of Cromwell YOU ask what -- I have found, and far and wide I go: The Dancer At Cruachan And Cro-Patrick I, proclaiming that there is The Dawn I WOULD be ignorant as the dawn The Dedication To A Book Of Stories... There was a green branch hung with many a bell The Delphic Oracle Upon Plotinus Behold that great Plotinus swim, The Dolls A DOLL in the doll-maker's house The Double Vision Of Michael Robartes I The Everlasting Voices O SWEET everlasting Voices, be still; The Fairy Pendant Scene: A circle of Druidic stones The Falling Of The Leaves AUTUMN is over the long leaves that love us, The Fascination Of What's Difficult THE fascination of what's difficult The Fiddler Of Dooney WHEN I play on my fiddle in Dooney. The Fish ALTHOUGH you hide in the ebb and flow The Fisherman ALTHOUGH I can see him still. The Folly Of Being Comforted ONE that is ever kind said yesterday: The Fool By The RoadSide WHEN all works that have The Ghost Of Roger Casement O WHAT has made that sudden noise? The Gift Of Harun Al-Rashid KUSTA BEN LUKA is my name, I write The Great Day HURRAH for revolution and more cannon-shot! The Grey Rock Poets with whom I learned my trade. The Gyres THE GYRES! the gyres! Old Rocky Face, look forth; The Happy Townland THERE'S many a strong farmer The Harp of Aengus Edain came out of Midhir's hill, and lay The Hawk "CALL down the hawk from the air; The Heart Of The Woman O WHAT to me the little room The Hosting Of The Sidhe THE host is riding from Knocknarea The Host Of The Air O'DRISCOLL drove with a song The Hour Before Dawn A CURSING rogue with a merry face, The Indian To His Love THE island dreams under the dawn The Indian Upon God I PASSED along the water's edge below the humid trees, The Lady's First Song I TURN round The Lady's Second Song WHAT sort of man is coming The Lady's Third Song WHEN you and my true lover meet The Lake Isle Of Innisfree I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner ALTHOUGH I shelter from the rain The Leaders Of The Crowd THEY must to keep their certainty accuse The Living Beauty I BADE, because the wick and oil are spent The Lover Asks Forgiveness Because Of His Many Moods IF this importunate heart trouble your peace The Lover Mourns For The Loss Of Love PALE brows, still hands and dim hair, The Lover Pleads With His Friend For Old Friends THOUGH you are in your shining days, The Lover Speaks To The Hearers... O WOMEN, kneeling by your altar-rails long hence, The Lover's Song BIRD sighs for the air, The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart ALL things uncomely and broken, all things worn out The Madness Of King Goll I SAT on cushioned otter-skin: The Magi NOW as at all times I can see in the mind's eye, The Man And The Echo Man The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland HE stood among a crowd at Dromahair; The Mask "PUT off that mask of burning gold The Meditation Of The Old Fisherman YOU waves, though you dance by my feet like children The Moods TIME drops in decay, The Mother Of God THE threefold terror of love; a fallen flare The Mountain Tomb POUR wine and dance if manhood still have pride, The Municipal Gallery Revisited AROUND me the images of thirty years: The New Faces IF you, that have grown old, were the first dead, The Nineteenth Century And After THOUGH the great song return no more The Old Age Of Queen Maeve A certain poet in outlandish clothes The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water I HEARD the old, old men say, The Old Pensioner I had a chair at every hearth, The Old Stone Cross A statesman is an easy man, The O'Rahilly SING of the O'Rahilly, The Peacock What's riches to him The People "WHAT have I earned for all that work,' I said, The Phases Of The Moon An old man cocked his car upon a bridge; The Pilgrim I FASTED for some forty days on bread and buttermilk, The Pity Of Love A PITY beyond all telling The Players Ask For A Blessing... Three Voices [together]. Hurry to bless the hands that play, The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers THE Powers whose name and shape no living creature knows The Ragged Wood O HURRY where by water among the trees The Realists HOPE that you may understand! The Results Of Thought Acquaintance; companion; The Rose in the Deeps of his Heart All things uncomely and broken, The Rose Of Battle ROSE of all Roses, Rose of all the World! The Rose Of Peace IF Michael, leader of God's host The Rose Of The World WHO dreamed that beauty passes like a dream? The Rose Tree 'O WORDS are lightly spoken,' The Sad Shepherd THERE was a man whom Sorrow named his Friend, The Saint And The Hunchback Hunchback. Stand up and lift your hand and bless The Scholars BALD heads forgetful of their sins, These Are The Clouds THESE are the clouds about the fallen sun, The Second Coming TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The Secret Rose FAR-OFF, most secret, and inviolate Rose, The Seven Sages The First. My great-grandfather spoke to Edmund Burke The Song Of The Happy Shepherd THE woods of Arcady are dead, The Song Of The Old Mother I RISE in the dawn, and I kneel and blow The Song Of Wandering Aengus I WENT out to the hazel wood, The Sorrow Of Love THE brawling of a sparrow in the eaves, The Spirit Medium POETRY, music, I have loved, and yet The Spur YOU think it horrible that lust and rage The Statesman's Holiday I LIVED among great houses, The Statues Pythagoras planned it. Why did the people stare? The Stolen Child WHERE dips the rocky highland The Three Beggars "Though to my feathers in the wet, The Three Bushes SAID lady once to lover, The Three Hermits THREE old hermits took the air The Three Monuments THEY hold their public meetings where The Tower I The Travail Of Passion WHEN the flaming lute-thronged angelic door is wide; The Two Kings KING EOCHAID came at sundown to a wood The Two Trees BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart, The Unappeasable Host THE Danaan children laugh, in cradles of wrought gold, The Valley of the Black Pig The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spears The Wanderings of Oisin: Book I S. Patrick. You who are bent, and bald, and blind, The Wanderings of Oisin: Book II Now, man of croziers, shadows called our names The Wanderings of Oisin: Book III Fled foam underneath us, and round us, a wandering and milky smoke, The Wheel THROUGH winter-time we call on spring, The White Birds I WOULD that we were, my beloved, white birds on the The Wild Old Wicked Man BECAUSE I am mad about women The Wild Swans At Coole THE trees are in their autumn beauty, The Winding Stair My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair; The Witch TOIL and grow rich, The Withering Of The Boughs I CRIED when the moon was murmuring to the birds: Those Dancing Days Are Gone Come, let me sing into your ear; Those Images WHAT if I bade you leave Three Marching Songs Remember all those renowned generations, Three Movements SHAKESPEAREAN fish swam the sea, far away from land; Three Songs To The One Burden THE Roaring Tinker if you like, Three Songs To The Same Tune I Three Things `O cruel Death, give three things back,' To A Child Dancing In The Wind DANCE there upon the shore; To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing NOW all the truth is out, To An Isle In The Water SHY one, Shy one, To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets You say, as I have often given tongue To A Shade IF you have revisited the town, thin Shade, To A Squirrel At Kyle-Na-No Come play with me; To A Wealthy Man Who Promised A Second Subscription... You gave, but will not give again To A Young Beauty DEAR fellow-artist, why so free To A Young Girl MY dear, my dear, I know To be Carved on a Stone at Ballylee I, the poet William Yeats, To Dorothy Wellesley STRETCH towards the moonless midnight of the trees, To His Heart, Bidding It Have No Fear BE you still, be you still, trembling heart; To Ireland In The Coming Times Know, that I would accounted be Tom At Cruachan On Cruachan's plain slept he Tom O'Roughley "THOUGH logic-choppers rule the town, Tom the Lunatic Sang old Tom the lunatic To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire WHILE I wrought out these fitful Danaan rhymes, To Songs Of A Fool I To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days! Towards Break Of Day WAS it the double of my dream Two Songs From a Play I Two Songs of a Fool I Two Songs Rewritten For The Tune's Sake I Two Years Later HAS no one said those daring Under Ben Bulben I Under Saturn DO not because this day I have grown saturnine Under The Moon I HAVE no happiness in dreaming of Brycelinde, Under The Round Tower "ALTHOUGH I'd lie lapped up in linen Upon A Dying Lady I Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation HOW should the world be luckier if this house, Vacilliation I Veronica's Napkin THE Heavenly Circuit; Berenice's Hair; What Then? HIS chosen comrades thought at school What Was Lost I SING what was lost and dread what was won, When Helen Lived WE have cried in our despair When You Are Old When you are old and grey and full of sleep, Where My Books go All the words that I utter, Who Goes With Fergus? WHO will go drive with Fergus now, Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad? Why should not old men be mad? Wisdom THE true faith discovered was Words I HAD this thought a while ago, Young Man's Song 'She will change,' I cried. Youth And Age MUCH did I rage when young,