William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 18

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It's certain there is no fine thing Since Adam's fall but needs much laboring.

William Butler Yeats

Fall, Needs, Adam

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.64, Wordsworth Editions

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O what fine thought we had because we thought that the worst rogues and rascals had died out.

William Butler Yeats

Rogues, Fine, Worst

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.175, Wordsworth Editions

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I thought of rhyme alone,
For rhyme can beat a measure out of trouble
And make the daylight sweet once more.

William Butler Yeats

Happiness, Sweet, Poetry

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

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Let the new faces play what tricks they will
In the old rooms; night can outbalance day,
Our shadows rove the garden gravel still,
The living seem more shadowy than they.

William Butler Yeats

Life, Night, Garden

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.179, Wordsworth Editions

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Come near; I would, before my time to go,
Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways:
Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.

William Butler Yeats

Rose, Proud, Red

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.23, Wordsworth Editions

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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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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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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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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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A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him up for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown.

William Butler Yeats

Swimming, Mermaid, Body

William Butler Yeats, “A Man Young And Old”

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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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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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Though logic-choppers rule the town,
And every man and maid and boy
Has marked a distant object down,
An aimless joy is a pure joy.

William Butler Yeats

Boys, Men, Optimism

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.116, Wordsworth Editions

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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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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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From dream to dream and rhyme to rhyme I have ranged / In rambling talk with an image of air: / Vague memories, nothing but memories.

William Butler Yeats

Dream, Memories, Air

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.114, Library of Alexandria

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An intellectual hatred is the worst, So let her think opinions are accursed. Have I not seen the loveliest woman born Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn, Because of her opinionated mind Barter that horn and every good By quiet natures understood For an old bellows full of angry wind?

William Butler Yeats

Thinking, Wind, Hatred

Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1920) "A Prayer for My Daughter"

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I carry from my mother's womb a fanatic's heart.

William Butler Yeats

Mother, Heart, Womb

'Remorse for Intemperate Speech'

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Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye, In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky With all their ancient faces like rain- beaten stones, And all their helms of silver hovering.

William Butler Yeats

Rain, Eye, Blue

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.95, Library of Alexandria

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I have no question: It is enough, I know what fixed the station Of star and cloud. And knowing all, I cry. . . .

William Butler Yeats

Stars, Clouds, Knowing

William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.294, Simon and Schuster

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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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I would have touched it like a child But knew my finger could but have touched Cold stone and water. I grew wild, Even accusing heaven because It had set down among its laws: Nothing that we love over-much Is ponderable to our touch.

William Butler Yeats

Children, Hands, Law

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.138, Library of Alexandria

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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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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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That toil of growing up; The ignominy of boyhood; the distress Of boyhood changing into man; The unfinished man and his pain.

William Butler Yeats

Growing Up, Pain, Men

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.240, Simon and Schuster

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

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