William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 19

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Age Aging Anarchy Angels Animals Art Balance

The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet.

William Butler Yeats

God, Time, Oxen

Poems (1895) "The Countess Cathleen" act 4

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Thought is a garment and the soul's a bride
That cannot in that trash and tinsel hide:
Hatred of God may bring the soul to God.

William Butler Yeats

God, Hatred, Soul

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.246, Wordsworth Editions

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But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

William Butler Yeats

Dog, Fleas

1909 'To a Poet, who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine', complete poem. Collected in The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910).

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The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

William Butler Yeats

Mystery, Uncontrollable, Unsatisfied

"The Magi" l. 1, 6 (1914)

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I weave the shoes of Sorrow:
Soundless shall be the footfall light
In all men's ears of Sorrow,
Sudden and light.

William Butler Yeats

Fate, Men, Shoes

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.5, Wordsworth Editions

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... Let the cage bird and the cage bird mate and the wild bird mate in the wild.

William Butler Yeats

Marriage, Bird, Cages

William Butler Yeats (2016). “Collected Poems”, p.124, William Butler Yeats

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The wind blows out of the gates of the day, The wind blows over the lonely of heart, And the lonely of heart is withered away.

William Butler Yeats

Sad, Lonely, Heart

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.542, Simon and Schuster

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When I play on my fiddle in Dooney
Folk dance like a wave on the sea.

William Butler Yeats

Dance, Sea, Play

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.71, Simon and Schuster

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Brown Penny I WHISPERED, 'I am too young,' And then, 'I am old enough'; Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love. 'Go and love, go and love, young man, If the lady be young and fair.' Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, I am looped in the loops of her hair. O love is the crooked thing, There is nobody wise enough To find out all that is in it, For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon. Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny, One cannot begin it too soon.

William Butler Yeats

Wise, Running, Stars

William Butler Yeats (2016). “Collected Poems”, p.52, William Butler Yeats

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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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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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The Father and His angelic hierarchy
That made the magnitude and glory there
Stood in the circuit of a needle's eye.

William Butler Yeats

Father, Eye, Angel

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.135, Simon and Schuster

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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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Locke sank into a swoon; The Garden died; God took the spinning-jenny Out of his side.

William Butler Yeats

Garden, Spinning, Jenny

"Fragments" l. 1 (1931)

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Because this age and the next age
Engender in the ditch,
No man can know a happy man
From any passing wretch,
If Folly link with Elegance
No man knows which is which.

William Butler Yeats

Happiness, Men, Age

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.324, Simon and Schuster

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I--though heart might find relief
Did I become a Christian man and choose for my belief
What seems most welcome in the tomb--play a predestined part.
Homer is my example and his unchristened heart.

William Butler Yeats

Faith, Christian, Heart

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

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If I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror, No vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had Before the world was made.

William Butler Yeats

Eye, Dark, Vanity

1928 'A Woman Young and Old', part 2 'Before the World was Made', stanza 1. Collected in The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933).

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Hope and Memory have one daughter and her name is Art, and she has built her dwelling far from the desperate field where men hang out their garments upon forked boughs to be banners of battle. O beloved daughter of Hope and Memory, be with me for a while.

William Butler Yeats

Inspirational, Daughter, Art

William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.222, Penguin

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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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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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Those men that in their writings are most wise
Own nothing but their blind, stupefied hearts.

William Butler Yeats

Wise, Wisdom, Writing

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.136, Wordsworth Editions

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I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent

William Butler Yeats

Thoughtful, Thinking, Mind

William Butler Yeats (2012). “The Winding Stair and Other Poems: A Facsimile Edition”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

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Because of something told under the famished horn
Of the hunter's moon, that hung between the night and the day,
To dream of women whose beauty was folded in dismay,
Even in an old story, is a burden not to be borne.

William Butler Yeats

Beauty, Dream, Women

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.33, Library of Alexandria

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Never shall a young man, Thrown into despair By those great honey-coloured Ramparts at your ear, Love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.

William Butler Yeats

Love You, Men, Hair

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.52, Hayes Barton Press

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If a powerful and benevolent spirit has shaped the destiny of this world, we can better discover that destiny from the words that have gathered up the heart's desire of the world, than from historical records, or from speculation, wherein the heart withers.

William Butler Yeats

Powerful, Heart, Destiny

William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, George Bornstein (2007). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays”, p.51, 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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