William Butler Yeats
Ireland
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
Quotes
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I gave what other women gave
That stepped out of their clothes
But when this soul, its body off
Naked to naked goes,
He it has found shall find therein
What none other knows.
That stepped out of their clothes
But when this soul, its body off
Naked to naked goes,
He it has found shall find therein
What none other knows.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. A Woman Young and Old, A Last Confession
John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory, thought
All that we did, all that we said or sang
Must come from contact with the soil, from that
Contact everything Antaeus-like grew strong.
All that we did, all that we said or sang
Must come from contact with the soil, from that
Contact everything Antaeus-like grew strong.
Last Poems, 1936-1939, The Municipal Gallery Revisited
Now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Michael Robartes and the Dancer , 1921
For such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufflcient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufflcient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921. A Prayer for My Daughter
Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say.
Never to have drawn the breath of life,
never to have looked into the eye of day;
The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away.
Never to have drawn the breath of life,
never to have looked into the eye of day;
The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away.
From Oedipus at Colonus
All hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will.
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921. A Prayer for My Daughter
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.
In the Seven Woods, 1904. Adam's Curse
Hurrah for revolution and more cannon-shot!
A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot.
Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!
The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.
A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot.
Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!
The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.
Last Poems, 1936-1939, The Great Day
Down the mountain walls
From where Pan's cavern is
Intolerable music falls.
Foul goat-head, brutal arm appear,
Belly, shoulder, bum,
Flash fishlike; nymphs and satyrs
Copulate in the foam.
From where Pan's cavern is
Intolerable music falls.
Foul goat-head, brutal arm appear,
Belly, shoulder, bum,
Flash fishlike; nymphs and satyrs
Copulate in the foam.
Last Poems, 1936-1939, News for the Delphic Oracle
Things said or done long years ago
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933, Vacillation
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays