William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 17

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What were all the world's alarms To mighty Paris when he found Sleep upon a golden bed That first dawn in Helen's arms?

William Butler Yeats

Sleep, Paris, Bed

'Meditations in Time of Civil War 6: The Stare's Nest by my Window'

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The fascination of what's difficult Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent Spontaneous joy and natural content Out of my heart.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Joy, Fascination

"The Fascination of What's Difficult" l. 1 (1910)

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But boys and girls, pale from the imagined love
Of solitary beds, knew what they were,
That passion could bring character enough
And pressed at midnighht in some public place
Live lips upon a plummet-measured face.

William Butler Yeats

Girl, Passion, Character

'The Statues'

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I see a schoolboy when I think of him,
With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window.

William Butler Yeats

Sweet, Thinking, Noses

'Ego Dominus Tuus' (referring to Keats)

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And there's a score of duchesses, surpassing womankind,
Or who have found a painter to make them so for pay
And smooth out stain and blemish with the elegance of his mind:
I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.

William Butler Yeats

Women, Phoenix, Mind

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.127, Wordsworth Editions

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While they danced they came over them the weariness with the world, the melancholy, the pity one for the other, which is the exultation of love.

William Butler Yeats

Love, World, Melancholy

William Butler Yeats (1925). “Early poems and stories”

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I would that I were an old beggar
Rolling a blind pearl eye,
For he cannot see my lady
Go gallivanting by.

William Butler Yeats

Eye, Rolling, Pearls

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.242, Wordsworth Editions

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In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse.

William Butler Yeats

Work, Frustration, Night

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.138, Simon and Schuster

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Whatever flames upon the night Man's own resinous heart has fed.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Night, Men

William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.527, Simon and Schuster

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All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart, The heavy steps of the plowman, splashing the wintry mold, Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.

William Butler Yeats

Children, Heart, Broken

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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Whence had they come The hand and lash that beat down frigid Rome? What sacred drama through her body heaved When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?

William Butler Yeats

Drama, Rome, Hands

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.247, Wordsworth Editions

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Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

William Butler Yeats

Art, Nature, Byzantium

"Sailing to Byzantium" l. 25 (1928)

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I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries Out of old mythologies From heel to throat But the fools caught it, Wore it in the world's eyes As though they'd wrought it. Song, let them take it, For there's more enterprise In walking naked.

William Butler Yeats

Song, Eye, Fool

"A Coat" l. 8 (1914)

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How could passion run so deep
Had I never thought
That the crime of being born
Blackens all our lot?

William Butler Yeats

Running, Passion, Sin

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.524, Hayes Barton Press

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The women that I picked spoke sweet and low
And yet gave tongue. "Hound voices" were they all.

William Butler Yeats

Sweet, Women, Voice

William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.175

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I can exchange opinion with any neighbouring mind,
I have as healthy flesh and blood as any rhymer's had,
But O! my Heart could bear no more when the upland caught the wind;
I ran, I ran, from my love's side because my Heart went mad.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Blood, Wind

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.187, Wordsworth Editions

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

William Butler Yeats

Running, Beer, Years

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.36, Library of Alexandria

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Come swish around my pretty punk
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.

William Butler Yeats

Drinking, Men, Dancing

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.268, Wordsworth Editions

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May we two stand,
When we are dead, beyond the setting suns,
A little from other shades apart,
With mingling hair, and play upon one lute.

William Butler Yeats

Prayer, Hair, Play

William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.146, Penguin

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Some burn damp faggots, others may consume The entire combustible world in one small room.

William Butler Yeats

Small Rooms, World, May

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.110, Wordsworth Editions

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What shall I do with this absurdity- O heart, O troubled heart-this caricature, Decrepit age that has been tied to me As to a dog's tail? Never had I more Excited, passionate, fantastical Imagination, nor an ear and eye That more expected the impossible.

William Butler Yeats

Dog, Heart, Eye

William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.488, Simon and Schuster

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. . . you may think I waste my breath
Pretending that there can be passion
That has more life in it than death

William Butler Yeats

Passion, Thinking, May

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.75, Library of Alexandria

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Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?

William Butler Yeats

War, Past, Men

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.198, Wordsworth Editions

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now
I bring full-flavoured wine out of a barrel found
Where seven Ephesian topers slept and never knew
When Alexander's empire passed, they slept so sound.

William Butler Yeats

Wine, Sleep, Ephesians

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.143, Hayes Barton Press

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A mouth that has no moisture and no breath
Breathless mouths may summon;
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.

William Butler Yeats

Greatness, Moisture, Mouths

"Byzantium" l. 15 (1933)

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

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