William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 15

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I thought no more was needed
Youth to prolong
Than dumb-bell and foil
To keep the body young.
O who could have foretold
That the heart grows old?

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Sadness, Dumb

'A Song'

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I knew that I had seen, had seen at last
That girl my unremembering nights hold fast
Or else my dreams that fly
If I should rub an eye,
And yet in flying fling into my meat
A crazy juice that makes the pulses beat.

William Butler Yeats

Girl, Dream, Crazy

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.233, Hayes Barton Press

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rhetoric is will doing the work of imagination.

William Butler Yeats

Imagination, Rhetoric

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O heart, we are old;
The living beauty is for younger men:
We cannot pay its tribute of wild tears.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Men, Tears

William Butler Yeats (1997). “"Easter, 1916" and Other Poems”, p.9, Courier Corporation

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A symbol is indeed the only possible expression of some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual flame; while allegory is one of many possible representations of an embodied thing, or familiar principle, and belongs to fancy and not to imagination: the one is a revelation, the other an amusement.

William Butler Yeats

Spiritual, Expression, Flames

William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, George Bornstein (2007). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

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On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut: Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by!

William Butler Yeats

Life, Death, Eye

"Under Ben Bulben" l. 89 (1939). The final three lines are in fact inscribed on Yeats's gravestone.

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Fairies in Ireland are sometimes as big as we are, sometimes bigger, and sometimes, as I have been told, about three feet high.

William Butler Yeats

Feet, Three, Sometimes

William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.301, Penguin

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We can only begin to live when we conceive life as Tragedy.

William Butler Yeats

Tragedy

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For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

William Butler Yeats

Men, Gone, Praying

"September, 1913" l. 7 (1914)

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Homer is my example and his unchristened heart.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Example

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.143, Simon and Schuster

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We are fastened to a dying animal.

William Butler Yeats

Animal, Dying

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Lionel Johnson comes the first to mind,
That loved his learning better than mankind,
Though courteous to the worst; much falling he
Brooded upon sanctity.

William Butler Yeats

Fall, Learning, Mind

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.98, Library of Alexandria

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I had this thought a while ago,
"My darling cannot understand
What I have done, or what would do
In this blind bitter land."
And I grew weary of the sun

William Butler Yeats

Land, Done, Sun

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.68, Library of Alexandria

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Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns?
I have been changed to a hound with one red ear;
I have been in the Path of Stones and the Wood of Thorns.

William Butler Yeats

White, Calling, Ears

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.49, Wordsworth Editions

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The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,
Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound,
Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are agleam,
Our arms are waving, our lips are apart.

William Butler Yeats

Eye, Hair, Wind

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.43, Wordsworth Editions

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I sat on cushioned otter-skin:
My word was law from Ith to Emain,
And shook at Invar Amargin
The hearts of the world-troubling seamen,
And drove tumult and war away.

William Butler Yeats

War, Heart, Law

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

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An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress.

William Butler Yeats

Men, Elderly, Hands

"Sailing to Byzantium" l. 9 (1928)

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My chair was nearest to the fire
In every company
That talked of love or politics,
Ere Time transfigured me.

William Butler Yeats

Time, Fire, Chairs

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

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There is no deformity But saves us from a dream.

William Butler Yeats

Dream, Imperfection, Deformity

William Butler Yeats (2016). “Collected Poems”, p.82, William Butler Yeats

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If there's no hatred in a mind Assault and battery of the wind Can never tear the linnet from the leaf

William Butler Yeats

Wind, Hatred, Mind

William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.93

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His element is so fine
Being sharpened by his death,
To drink from the wine-breath
While our gross palates drink from the whole wine.

William Butler Yeats

Wine, Elements, Drink

William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.118

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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.

William Butler Yeats

Moon, Men, Sky

1891 'The Sorrow of Love', stanza 1. Collected in The Rose (1893).

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Consume my heart away, sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is, and gather me Into the artifice of eternity.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Animal, Sick

"Sailing to Byzantium" l. 21 (1928)

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The Muse is mute when public men
Applaud a modern throne.

William Butler Yeats

Men, Thrones, Politics

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.237, Hayes Barton Press

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But bear in mind your lover's wage
Is what your looking-glass can show,
And that he will turn green with rage
At all that is not pictured there.

William Butler Yeats

Beauty, Jealousy, Glasses

William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.82

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Born: June 13, 1865
Died: January 28, 1939
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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