William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 18

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You ask what I have found and far and wide I go,
Nothing but Cromwell's house and Cromwell's murderous crew,
The lovers and the dancers are beaten into the clay,
And the tall men and the swordsmen and the horsemen where are they?

William Butler Yeats

Men, House, Dancer

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.311, Simon and Schuster

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And there's a score of duchesses, surpassing womankind,
Or who have found a painter to make them so for pay
And smooth out stain and blemish with the elegance of his mind:
I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.

William Butler Yeats

Women, Phoenix, Mind

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.127, Wordsworth Editions

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How could passion run so deep
Had I never thought
That the crime of being born
Blackens all our lot?

William Butler Yeats

Running, Passion, Sin

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.524, Hayes Barton Press

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Come near; I would, before my time to go,
Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways:
Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.

William Butler Yeats

Rose, Proud, Red

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.23, Wordsworth Editions

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Poet and sculptor, do the work, / Nor let the modish painter shirk

William Butler Yeats

Poet, Shirk, Painter

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.334, Simon and Schuster

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Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

William Butler Yeats

Art, Nature, Byzantium

"Sailing to Byzantium" l. 25 (1928)

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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.

William Butler Yeats

Dream, Learning, Winter

William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.250, Hayes Barton Press

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I see a schoolboy when I think of him,
With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window.

William Butler Yeats

Sweet, Thinking, Noses

'Ego Dominus Tuus' (referring to Keats)

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There are a few of the open-air spirits; the more domestic of their tribe gather within-doors, plentiful as swallows under southern eaves.

William Butler Yeats

Air, Doors, Southern

William Butler Yeats (2007). “The Celtic Twilight”, p.17, Library of Alexandria

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And God, the herdsman, goads them on behind.

William Butler Yeats

Time, Oxen, Behinds

Poems (1895) "The Countess Cathleen" act 4

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Test every work of intellect or faith and everything that your own hands have wrought.

William Butler Yeats

Hands, Extravagance, Tests

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.141, Simon and Schuster

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I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.

William Butler Yeats

Phoenix, Youth

'His Phoenix'

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The common breeds the common,
A lout begets a lout,
So when I take on half a score
I knock their heads about.

William Butler Yeats

Half, Violence, Common

William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.827, Simon and Schuster

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In mockery I have set
A powerful emblem up,
And sing it rhyme upon rhyme
In mockery of a time
Half dead at the top.

William Butler Yeats

Powerful, Symbolism, Towers

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.241, Simon and Schuster

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The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.

William Butler Yeats

Christian, Passion, Writing

William Butler Yeats (1955). “Letters”

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How can they know
Truth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone,
And there alone, that have no solitude?
So the crowd come they care not what may come.
They have loud music, hope every day renewed
And heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb.

William Butler Yeats

Truth, Solitude, Lamps

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.156, Wordsworth Editions

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God spreads the heavens above us like great wings, And gives a little round of deeds and days.

William Butler Yeats

Wings, Giving, Heaven

William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays”, p.67, Simon and Schuster

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In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse.

William Butler Yeats

Work, Frustration, Night

William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.138, Simon and Schuster

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The world being illusive, one must be deluded in some way if one is to triumph in it.

William Butler Yeats

Triumph, World, Way

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Education is not filling

William Butler Yeats

Filling

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The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

William Butler Yeats

Mystery, Uncontrollable, Unsatisfied

"The Magi" l. 1, 6 (1914)

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. . . you may think I waste my breath
Pretending that there can be passion
That has more life in it than death

William Butler Yeats

Passion, Thinking, May

William Butler Yeats (1931). “Later Poems”, p.75, Library of Alexandria

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Great literature has always been written in a like spirit, and is, indeed, the Forgiveness of Sin, and when we find it becoming the Accusation of Sin, as in George Eliot, who plucks her Tito in pieces with as much assurance as if he had been clockwork, literature has begun to change into something else.

William Butler Yeats

Pieces, Literature, Becoming

William Butler Yeats (2017). “Ideas of Good and Evil”, p.79, Litres

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One often hears of a horse that shivers with terror, or of a dog that howls at something a mans eyes cannot see, and men who live primitive lives where instinct does the work of reason are fully conscious,of many things we cannot perceive at all. As life becomes more orderly, more deliberate, the supernatural world sinks farther away.

William Butler Yeats

Dog, Horse, Eye

William Butler Yeats (2017). “The Cutting of an Agate”, p.9, BoD – Books on Demand

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Let the minor genius go his light way and enjoy his life - the great nature cannot so live, he is never really in holiday mood, even though he often plucks flowers by the wayside and ties them into knots and garlands like little children and lays out on a sunny morning.

William Butler Yeats

Morning, Children, Flower

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

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