William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 7

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For such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.

William Butler Yeats

Beauty, Beautiful, Kindness

William Butler Yeats, “A Prayer For My Daughter”

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Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.

William Butler Yeats

Lying, Flower, Roots

"The Coming of Wisdom with Time" l. 1 (1910)

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Not a man alive has so much luck that he can play with it.

William Butler Yeats

Life, Men, Play

William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.303, Simon and Schuster

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to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.

William Butler Yeats

Hate, Evil, May

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.140, Library of Alexandria

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I have found nothing half so good / As my long-planned half solitude, / Where I can sit up half the night / With some friend that has the wit.

William Butler Yeats

Night, Long, Solitude

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

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I dreamed that I stood in a valley, and amid sighs,
For happy lovers passed two by two where I stood;
And I dreamed my lost love came stealthily out of the wood
With her cloud-pale eyelids falling on dream-dimmed eyes.

William Butler Yeats

Dream, Lost Love, Fall

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.186, Hayes Barton Press

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I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.

William Butler Yeats

Hate, Fighting, Fate

"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" l. 1 (1919)

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A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard A voice singing on a May Eve like this, And followed half awake and half asleep, Until she came into the Land of Faery, Where nobody gets old and godly and grave, Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue. And she is still there, busied with a dance Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood, Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top.

William Butler Yeats

Wise, Daughter, Kings

William Butler Yeats (1814). “The Land of Heart's Desire”, p.12

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but one loses, as one grows older, something of the lightness of one's dreams; one begins to take life up in both hands, and to care more for the fruit than the flower, and that is no great loss perhaps.

William Butler Yeats

Dream, Retirement, Flower

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

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An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick

William Butler Yeats

Time, Men, Elderly

"Sailing to Byzantium" l. 9 (1928)

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Our own acts are isolated and one act does not buy absolution for another.

William Butler Yeats

Doe, Isolated, Absolution

William Butler Yeats (2010). “Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats”, p.371, Simon and Schuster

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You know what the Englishman's idea of compromise is? He says, Some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two statements.

William Butler Yeats

Truth, Lying, Ideas

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Time drops in decay Like a candle burnt out. And the mountains and woods Have their day, have their day; But, kindly old rout Of the fire-born moods, You pass not away.

William Butler Yeats

Fire, Mountain, Decay

William Butler Yeats (2007). “The Celtic Twilight”, p.2, Library of Alexandria

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Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the indomitable Irishry.

William Butler Yeats

Mind, May, Casts

"Under Ben Bulben" l. 81 (1939)

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Life moves out of a red flare of dreams Into a common light of common hours, Until old age brings the red flare again.

William Butler Yeats

Dream, Moving, Light

William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.99, Penguin

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Earth in beauty dressed
Awaits returning spring.
All true love must die,
Alter at the best
Into some lesser thing.
Prove that I lie.

William Butler Yeats

Spring, Lying, Loss

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.151, Simon and Schuster

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Before The World Was Made 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. What if I look upon a man as though on my beloved, and my blood be cold the while and my heart unmoved? Why should he think me cruel or that he is betrayed? I'd have him love the thing that was before the world was made.

William Butler Yeats

Eye, Heart, Dark

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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BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Tree, Growing

William Butler Yeats (2015). “When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales”, p.139, Penguin

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Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

William Butler Yeats

Garden, Hands, Rivers

Poems (1895) "Down by the Salley Gardens"

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What if the Church and the State
Are the mob that howls at the door!
Wine shall run thick to the end,
Bread taste sour.

William Butler Yeats

Running, Wine, Government

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.80, Hayes Barton Press

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What is literature but the expression of moods by the vehicle of symbol and incident?

William Butler Yeats

Expression, Literature, Mood

William Butler Yeats (2007). “The Celtic Twilight”, p.6, Library of Alexandria

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An Irish Airman foresees his Death I Know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love, My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public man, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.

William Butler Yeats

Country, Lonely, Cheer

"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" l. 1 (1919)

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I have often had the fancy that there is some one Myth for every man, which, if we but knew it, would make us understand all he did and thought.

William Butler Yeats

Men, Fancy, Myth

William Butler Yeats, Richard J. Finneran, George Bornstein (2007). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays”, p.81, Simon and Schuster

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One had a lovely face,
And two or three had charm,
But charm and face were in vain.
Because the mountain grass
Cannot keep the form
Where the mountain hare has lain.

William Butler Yeats

Two, Poetry, Lovely

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.125, Wordsworth Editions

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The house ghost is usually a harmless and well-meaning creature. It is put up with as long as possible. It brings good luck to those who live with it.

William Butler Yeats

Good Luck, Long, House

William Butler Yeats (2007). “The Celtic Twilight”, p.18, Library of Alexandria

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

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