William Butler Yeats
Ireland
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
Quotes
<< Prev Next >>
Somewhere beyond the curtain
Of distorting days
Lives that lonely thing
That shone before these eyes
Targeted, trod like Spring.
Of distorting days
Lives that lonely thing
That shone before these eyes
Targeted, trod like Spring.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. Quarrel in Old Age
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921. A Prayer for My Daughter
The fascination of what's difficult
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart.
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart.
The Green Helmet and Other Poems, 1910. The Fascination of What's Difficult
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds.
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds.
The Wild Swans at Coole 1919. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Everything that man esteems
Endures a moment or a day.
Love's pleasure drives his love away,
The painter's brush consumes his dreams.
Endures a moment or a day.
Love's pleasure drives his love away,
The painter's brush consumes his dreams.
The Tower, 1928. Two Songs from a Play
But what is Whiggery?
A leveling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of a drunkard's eye.
A leveling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of a drunkard's eye.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. The Seven Sages
Mock mockers after that
That would not lift a hand maybe
To help good, wise or great
To bar that foul storm out, for we
Traffic in mockery.
That would not lift a hand maybe
To help good, wise or great
To bar that foul storm out, for we
Traffic in mockery.
The Tower, 1928. Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen
The true faith discovered was
When painted panel, statuary,
Glass-mosaic, window-glass,
Amended what was told awry
By some peasant gospeler.
When painted panel, statuary,
Glass-mosaic, window-glass,
Amended what was told awry
By some peasant gospeler.
The Tower, 1928. Wisdom
Consume my heart away, sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is, and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is, and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
The Tower, 1928. Sailing to Byzantium
Come away, O human child!Â
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,Â
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,Â
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
The Stolen Child
Search
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