W.B. Yeats: Trending quotes

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W.B. Yeats: 510 quotes285 likes

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

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

St. 4 The Tower (1928), Sailing to Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1575/ Context: Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; Or set upon a golden bough to sing To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

“I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat”

W.B. Yeats

A Coat http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1393/ Responsibilities (1914) Context: I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries Out of old mythologies From heel to throat; But the fools caught it, Wore it in the world’s eyes As though they’d wrought it. Song, let them take it, For there’s more enterprise In walking naked.

“I would be — for no knowledge is worth a straw —
Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.”

W.B. Yeats

The Dawn http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1612/ The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) Context: I would be ignorant as the dawn That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses; I would be — for no knowledge is worth a straw — Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.

“Many ingenious lovely things are gone
That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude,”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

I, st. 1 The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/ Context: Many ingenious lovely things are gone That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude, protected from the circle of the moon That pitches common things about.

“Everything that man esteems
Endures a moment or a day.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

II, st. 2 The Tower (1928), Two Songs From a Play http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1741/ Context: Everything that man esteems Endures a moment or a day. Love’s pleasure drives his love away, The painter’s brush consumes his dreams.

“A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.”

W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1455/, st. 1 The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) Context: The unpurged images of day recede; The Emperor’s drunken soldiery are abed; Night resonance recedes, night walkers’ song After great cathedral gong; A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains All that man is, All mere complexities, The fury and the mire of human veins.

“Yet she, singing upon her road,
Half lion, half child, is at peace.”

W.B. Yeats

Against Unworthy Praise http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1433/ The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910) Context: p>O heart, be at peace, because Nor knave nor dolt can break What's not for their applause Being for a woman's sake. Enough if the work has seemed, So did she your strength renew, A dream that a lion had dreamed Till the wilderness cried aloud, A secret between you two, Between the proud and the proud.What, still you would have their praise! But here's a haughtier text, The labyrinth of her days That her own strangeness perplexed; And how what her dreaming gave Earned slander, ingratitude, From self-same dolt and knave; Aye, and worse wrong than these. Yet she, singing upon her road, Half lion, half child, is at peace.</p

“Hammer your thoughts into unity.”

W.B. Yeats

"If I Were Four-and-Twenty," printed in Irish Statesman (23 August 1919)
Context: One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep: "Hammer your thoughts into unity." For days I could think of nothing else, and for years I tested all I did by that sentence.

“This beauty's kinder, yet for a reason
I could weep that the old is out of season”

W.B. Yeats

The Arrow http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1590/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Context: I thought of your beauty, and this arrow, Made out of a wild thought, is in my marrow. There's no man may look upon her, no man, As when newly grown to be a woman, Tall and noble but with face and bosom Delicate in colour as apple blossom. This beauty's kinder, yet for a reason I could weep that the old is out of season.

“O she had not these ways
When all the wild summer was in her gaze.”

W.B. Yeats

The Folly Of Being Comforted http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1623/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Context: One that is ever kind said yesterday: 'Your well-belovéd's hair has threads of grey, And little shadows come about her eyes; Time can but make it easier to be wise Though now it seems impossible, and so All that you need is patience.' Heart cries, 'No, I have not a crumb of comfort, not a grain. Time can but make her beauty over again: Because of that great nobleness of hers The fire that stirs about her, when she stirs, Burns but more clearly. O she had not these ways When all the wild summer was in her gaze.' O heart! O heart! if she'd but turn her head, You'd know the folly of being comforted.

“But O, in a minute she changed--”

W.B. Yeats

O Do Not Love Too Long http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1549/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Context: Sweetheart, do not love too long: I loved long and long, And grew to be out of fashion Like an old song. All through the years of our youth Neither could have known Their own thought from the other's We were so much at one. But O, in a minute she changed-- O do not love too long, Or you will grow out of fashion Like an old song.

“Heaven blazing into the head:
Tragedy wrought to its uttermost.”

W.B. Yeats

Last Poems (1936-1939)
Context: 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.

Lapis Lazuli, st. 2

“Man is in love and loves what vanishes,
What more is there to say?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

I, st. 5-6 The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/ Context: But is there any comfort to be found? Man is in love and loves what vanishes, What more is there to say?

“It’s certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.”

W.B. Yeats

St. 3 In The Seven Woods (1904), Adam's Curse http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1431/ Context: It’s certain there is no fine thing Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring. There have been lovers who thought love should be So much compounded of high courtesy That they would sigh and quote with learned looks Precedents out of beautiful old books; Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.

“Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!
Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways:”

W.B. Yeats

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1736/ The Rose (1893) Context: Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days! Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways: Cuchulain battling with the bitter tide; The Druid, grey, wood-nurtured, quiet-eyed, Who cast round Fergus dreams, and ruin untold;

“A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.”

W.B. Yeats

An Irish Airman Forsees His Death http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1441/ The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) Context: I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My county is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. 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; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.

“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”

W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

A Last Confession http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1404/, St. 3 & 4 The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) Context: p>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,And give his own and take his own And rule in his own right; And though it loved in misery Close and cling so tight, There’s not a bird of day that dare Extinguish that delight.</p

“O do not love too long,
Or you will grow out of fashion
Like an old song.”

W.B. Yeats

“Of what is past, or passing, or to come.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

“Could the impossible come to pass
She would have time to turn her eyes,
Her lover thought, upon the glass
And on the instant would grow wise.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

Michael Robartes and the Dancer http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1535/ Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) Context: Opinion is not worth a rush; In this altar-piece the knight, Who grips his long spear so to push That dragon through the fading light, Loved the lady; and it’s plain The half-dead dragon was her thought, That every morning rose again And dug its claws and shrieked and fought. Could the impossible come to pass She would have time to turn her eyes, Her lover thought, upon the glass And on the instant would grow wise.