William Butler Yeats Quotes - Page 23

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But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

William Butler Yeats

Dog, Fleas

1909 'To a Poet, who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine', complete poem. Collected in The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910).

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That beautiful mild woman for whose sake There's many a one shall find out all heartache On finding that her voice is sweet and low Replied, 'To be born a woman is to know- Although they do not talk of it at school - That we must labor to be beautiful.

William Butler Yeats

Beautiful, Sweet, School

William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

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Heaven blazing into the head: Tragedy wrought to its uttermost. Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages And all the drop-scenes drop at once Upon a hundred thousand stages It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce.

William Butler Yeats

Heaven, Tragedy, Scene

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.250, Wordsworth Editions

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Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?

William Butler Yeats

War, Past, Men

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.198, Wordsworth Editions

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So long as all is ordered for attack, and that alone, leaders will instinctively increase the number of enemies that they may give their followers something to do.

William Butler Yeats

Numbers, Long, Giving

William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. III: Autobiogra”, p.369, Simon and Schuster

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Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought - asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.

William Butler Yeats

Book, Reading, Pride

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The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;
I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart.

William Butler Yeats

Green, Hunger, Ugliness

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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The Bishop has a skin, God knows,
Wrinkled like the foot of a goose,
(All find safety in the tomb.)
Nor can he hide in holy black
The heron's hunch upon his back,
But a birch-tree stood my Jack.

William Butler Yeats

Feet, Hypocrisy, Safety

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.260, Simon and Schuster

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I pray-for fashion's word is out And prayer comes round again- That I may seem, though I die old, A foolish, passionate man.

William Butler Yeats

Death, Fashion, Prayer

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.288, Simon and Schuster

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A spot whereon the founders lived and died
Seemed once more dear than life; ancestral trees,
Or gardens rich in memory glorified
Marriages, alliances, and families,
And every bride's ambition satisfied.

William Butler Yeats

Memories, Ambition, Garden

William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol X: Later Article: Uncollected Articles, Reviews, and Radio Broadcasts Written After 1900”, p.212, Simon and Schuster

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Acquaintance; companion;
One dear brilliant woman;
The best-endowed, the elect,
All by their youth undone,
All, all, by that inhuman
Bitter glory wrecked.

William Butler Yeats

Brilliant, Youth, Bitter

William Butler Yeats (2010). “The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I: The Poems: Revised Second Edition”, p.253, Simon and Schuster

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The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God, the herdsman goads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet.

William Butler Yeats

God, Time, Oxen

Poems (1895) "The Countess Cathleen" act 4

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I weave the shoes of Sorrow:
Soundless shall be the footfall light
In all men's ears of Sorrow,
Sudden and light.

William Butler Yeats

Fate, Men, Shoes

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.5, Wordsworth Editions

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Thought is a garment and the soul's a bride
That cannot in that trash and tinsel hide:
Hatred of God may bring the soul to God.

William Butler Yeats

God, Hatred, Soul

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.246, Wordsworth Editions

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The true faith discovered was When painted panel, statuary, Glass-mosaic, window-glass, Amended what was told awry By some peasant gospeler.

William Butler Yeats

Faith, Glasses, Mosaics

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.223, Simon and Schuster

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While they danced they came over them the weariness with the world, the melancholy, the pity one for the other, which is the exultation of love.

William Butler Yeats

Love, World, Melancholy

William Butler Yeats (1925). “Early poems and stories”

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Whence had they come The hand and lash that beat down frigid Rome? What sacred drama through her body heaved When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?

William Butler Yeats

Drama, Rome, Hands

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.247, Wordsworth Editions

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I can exchange opinion with any neighbouring mind,
I have as healthy flesh and blood as any rhymer's had,
But O! my Heart could bear no more when the upland caught the wind;
I ran, I ran, from my love's side because my Heart went mad.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Blood, Wind

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.187, Wordsworth Editions

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Why should I blame her that she filled my days With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, Or hurled the little streets upon the great, Had they but courage equal to desire? What could have made her peaceful with a mind That nobleness made simple as a fire, With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind That is not natural in an age like this Being high and solitary and most stern? Why, what could she have done, being what she is? Was there another Troy for her to burn?

William Butler Yeats

Simple, Men, Fire

"No Second Troy" l. 11 (1910)

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Whatever flames upon the night Man's own resinous heart has fed.

William Butler Yeats

Heart, Night, Men

William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.527, Simon and Schuster

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I would that there was nothing in the world
But my beloved that night and day had perished,
And all that is and all that is to be,
All that is not the meeting of our lips.

William Butler Yeats

Night, World, Lips

William Butler Yeats (1997). “The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition”, p.435, Simon and Schuster

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I would that I were an old beggar
Rolling a blind pearl eye,
For he cannot see my lady
Go gallivanting by.

William Butler Yeats

Eye, Rolling, Pearls

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.242, Wordsworth Editions

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But stories that live longest
Are sung above the glass,
And Parnell loved his country
And Parnell loved his lass.

William Butler Yeats

Country, Glasses, Stories

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.265, Wordsworth Editions

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What shall I do with this absurdity- O heart, O troubled heart-this caricature, Decrepit age that has been tied to me As to a dog's tail? Never had I more Excited, passionate, fantastical Imagination, nor an ear and eye That more expected the impossible.

William Butler Yeats

Dog, Heart, Eye

William Butler Yeats (2008). “COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS”, p.488, Simon and Schuster

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While on that old grey stone I sat
Under the old wind-broken tree,
I knew that One is animate,
Mankind inanimate phantasy.

William Butler Yeats

Reality, Wind, Broken

William Butler Yeats (2000). “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats”, p.161, Wordsworth Editions

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

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