W.B. Yeats: Trending quotes (page 5)

“They say such different things at school.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

Michael Robartes and the Dancer
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)

School

“Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Leda and the Swan http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1523/, st. 3
The Tower (1928)

Knowledge , Indifference

“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.”

W.B. Yeats

Under Ben Bulben, VI
Last Poems (1936-1939)

“Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 4.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
Context: I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Beauty , Change , Time

“We and the labouring world are passing by:
Amid men's souls, that waver and give place
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,
Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.”

W.B. Yeats

St. 2
The Rose (1893), The Rose of the World

Men , World , Soul , Star

“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.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

V, st. 4
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

Help

“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?”

W.B. Yeats

No Second Troy http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1548/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)

Men , Age , Peace , Beauty

“This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vain-glorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 2
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/

Beauty , Dreams , Change , Heart

“Only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.”

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

For Anne Gregory http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1483/, st. 3
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

Love , God

“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all — the colleges I mean — like an opera.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to Katharine Tynan (25 August 1888)

People , Beauty , Dreams , Singing

“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.”

W.B. Yeats

The Countess Cathleen http://www.letras.ufrj.br/veralima/6_referencias/63_e_texts_2005/yeats/countess_cathleen/yeats_countess_cathleen_2005.htm, last lines (1892)

God , World

“What were all the world’s alarms
To mighty Paris when he found
Sleep upon a golden bed
That first dawn in Helen’s arms?”

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

Lullaby http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1527/, st. 1
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

World , Sleep

“Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter, seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/

Winter , Heart , Summer

“All perform their tragic play,
There struts Hamlet, there is Lear,
That’s Ophelia, that Cordelia.”

W.B. Yeats

Lapis Lazuli http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1522/, st. 2
Last Poems (1936-1939)

“Whether they knew or not,
Goldsmith and Burke, Swift and the Bishop of Cloyne
All hated Whiggery; but what is Whiggery?
A levelling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of drunkard’s eye.”

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

The Seven Sages http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1685/
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

Hate

“The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky.”

W.B. Yeats

The Wild Swans At Coole http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1712/, st. 1
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Beauty , Autumn , Tree , Water

“Come let us mock at the wise;
With all those calendars whereon
They fixed old aching eyes,
They never saw how seasons run,
And now but gape at the sun.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

V, st. 2
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

Sun , Season

“Pardon, old fathers, if you still remain
Somewhere in ear-shot for the story’s end.”

W.B. Yeats

Responsibilities - Introduction http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1572/
Responsibilities (1914)

“A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.”

W.B. Yeats

St. 1
In The Seven Woods (1904), Adam's Curse http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1431/

World , Weather

“Come let us mock at the good
That fancied goodness might be gay,
And sick of solitude
Might proclaim a holiday:
Wind shrieked— and where are they?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

V, st. 3
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

Solitude , Holiday