Author: William Butler Yeats

All things can tempt me from this craft of verse: One time it was a woman’s face, or worse – […]

We have cried in our despair That men desert, For some trivial affair Or noisy, insolent sport, Beauty that we […]

He. Opinion is not worth a rush; In this altar-piece the knight, Who grips his long spear so to push […]

The Danaan children laugh, in cradles of wrought gold, And clap their hands together, and half close their eyes, For […]

I whispered, ‘I am too young,’ And then, ‘I am old enough’; Wherefore I threw a penny To find out […]

Bird sighs for the air, Thought for I know not where, For the womb the seed sighs. Now sinks the […]

I did the dragon’s will until you came Because I had fancied love a casual Improvisation, or a settled game […]

Cumhal called out, bending his head, Till Dathi came and stood, With a blink in his eyes, at the cave-mouth, […]

Autumn is over the long leaves that love us, And over the mice in the barley sheaves; Yellow the leaves […]

One had a lovely face, And two or three had charm, But charm and face were in vain Because the […]

Although crowds gathered once if she but showed her face, And even old men’s eyes grew dim, this hand alone, […]

There is a queen in China, or maybe it’s in Spain, And birthdays and holidays such praises can be heard […]

I would be ignorant as the dawn That has looked down On that old queen measuring a town With the […]

What lively lad most pleasured me Of all that with me lay? I answer that I gave my soul And […]

I sat on cushioned otter-skin: My word was law from Ith to Emain, And shook at Inver Amergin The hearts […]

All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old, The cry of a child by the roadway, the […]

If any man drew near When I was young, I thought, ‘He holds her dear,’ And shook with hate and […]

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there; From joy the holy branches start, And all […]

Shy one, shy one, Shy one of my heart, She moves in the firelight Pensively apart. She carries in the […]

Old fathers, great-grandfathers, Rise as kindred should. If ever lover’s loneliness Came where you stood, Pray that Heaven protect us […]

Beloved, may your sleep be sound That have found it where you fed. What were all the world’s alarms To […]

Dry timber under that rich foliage, At wine-dark midnight in the sacred wood, Too old for a man’s love I […]

O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes, The poets labouring all their days To build a perfect beauty in rhyme Are overthrown […]

We should be hidden from their eyes, Being but holy shows And bodies broken like a thorn Whereon the bleak […]

O heart, be at peace, because Nor knave nor dolt can break What’s not for their applause, Being for a […]

I have met them at close of day Coming with vivid faces From counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century houses. […]

Out-Worn heart, in a time out-worn, Come clear of the nets of wrong and right; Laugh, heart, again in the […]

There where the course is, Delight makes all of the one mind, The riders upon the galloping horses, The crowd […]

Others because you did not keep That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine; Yet always when I look death […]

Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania, In their bridal sleep under a Cromlech. We who are […]