William Butler Yeats
Ireland
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
Quotes
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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
The unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song
After great cathedral gong.
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song
After great cathedral gong.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. Byzantium
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.
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.
The Land of Heart's Desire, 1894
My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bone,
Can make the truth known.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bone,
Can make the truth known.
Last Poems, 1936-1939, An Acre of Grass
O but we dreamed to mend
Whatever mischief seemed
To afflict mankind, but now
That winds of winter blow
Learn that we were crack-pated when we dreamed.
Whatever mischief seemed
To afflict mankind, but now
That winds of winter blow
Learn that we were crack-pated when we dreamed.
The Tower, 1928. Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen
Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Till I am Timon and Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call.
Myself must I remake
Till I am Timon and Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call.
Last Poems, 1936-1939, An Acre of Grass
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.
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun
Now I may wither into the truth.
The Green Helmet and Other Poems, 1910. The Coming of Wisdom with Time
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