W.B. Yeats citations (256 citations, Page 2)

W.B. Yeats: 256 citations0 J'aime

W.B. Yeats Citations

“Lui qui aurait voulu pouvoir offrir le ciel

Si je pouvais t'offrir le bleu secret du ciel
Brodé de lumière d'or et de reflets d'argents
Le mystérieux secret, le secret éternel
De la nuit et du jour, de la vie et du temps

Avec tout mon amour je le mettrais à tes pieds
Mais tu sais je suis pauvre et je n'ai que mes rêves
Alors c'est de mes rêves qu'il faut te contenter
Marche doucement, car tu marches sur mes rêves”

W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats: Citations en anglais

“Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
We loved each other and were ignorant.”

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

After Long Silence http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1432/ The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) Contexte: Speech after long silence; it is right, All other lovers being estranged or dead, Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade, The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night, That we descant and yet again descant Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.

“That is no country for old men.”

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W.B. Yeats livre The Tower

St. 1 Cf. Nelson Algren's later, "That was no town for the aged or the aging." The Tower (1928), Sailing to Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1575/ Contexte: That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unaging intellect.

“Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”

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W.B. Yeats

Last Poems (1936-1939)
Contexte: No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!

“O heart, be at peace, because
Nor knave nor dolt can break
What's not for their applause”

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W.B. Yeats

Against Unworthy Praise http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1433/ The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910) Contexte: 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

“But, dear, cling close to me; since you were gone,
My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone.”

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W.B. Yeats

Reconciliation http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1568/ The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910) Contexte: Some may have blamed you that you took away The verses that could move them on the day When, the ears being deafened, the sight of the eyes blind With lightning, you went from me, and I could find Nothing to make a song about but kings, Helmets, and swords, and half-forgotten things That were like memories of you--but now We'll out, for the world lives as long ago; And while we're in our laughing, weeping fit, Hurl helmets, crowns, and swords into the pit. But, dear, cling close to me; since you were gone, My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone.

“All hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will;”

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W.B. Yeats livre Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 9 Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), A Prayer For My Daughter http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1421/ Contexte: All hatred driven hence, The soul recovers radical innocence And learns at last that it is self-delighting, Self-appeasing, self-affrighting, And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will; She can, though every face should scowl And every windy quarter howl Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

“Be secret and exult,
Because of all things known
That is most difficult.”

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W.B. Yeats

To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1723/ Responsibilities (1914) Contexte: Now all the truth is out, Be secret and take defeat From any brazen throat, For how can you compete, Being honour bred, with one Who, were it proved he lies, Were neither shamed in his own Nor in his neighbours’ eyes? Bred to a harder thing Than Triumph, turn away And like a laughing string Whereon mad fingers play Amid a place of stone, Be secret and exult, Because of all things known That is most difficult.

“He made the world to be a grassy road
Before her wandering feet.”

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W.B. Yeats

St. 3
The Rose (1893), The Rose of the World
Contexte: Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:
Before you were, or any hearts to beat,
Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;
He made the world to be a grassy road
Before her wandering feet.

“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.”

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W.B. Yeats

The Coming Of Wisdom With Time http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1607/ The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)

“And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”

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W.B. Yeats

When You Are Old http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1756/, st. 1–3 The Rose (1893) Contexte: p>When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.</p

“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.”

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W.B. Yeats livre Michael Robartes and the Dancer

Michael Robartes and the Dancer http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1535/ Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats livre The Tower

St. 4 The Tower (1928), Sailing to Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1575/ Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats

O Do Not Love Too Long http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1549/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Contexte: 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.

“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”

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W.B. Yeats livre 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) Contexte: 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

“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.”

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W.B. Yeats

An Irish Airman Forsees His Death http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1441/ The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1736/ The Rose (1893) Contexte: 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;

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

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W.B. Yeats

St. 3 In The Seven Woods (1904), Adam's Curse http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1431/ Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats livre The Tower

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

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

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W.B. Yeats

Last Poems (1936-1939)
Contexte: 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

“But O, in a minute she changed--”

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W.B. Yeats

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

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W.B. Yeats

The Folly Of Being Comforted http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1623/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats

The Arrow http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1590/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Contexte: 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.

“Hammer your thoughts into unity.”

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W.B. Yeats

"If I Were Four-and-Twenty," printed in Irish Statesman (23 August 1919)
Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats

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

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

Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1455/, st. 1 The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats livre The Tower

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

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

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W.B. Yeats livre The Tower

I, st. 1 The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/ Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats

The Dawn http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1612/ The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats

A Coat http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1393/ Responsibilities (1914) Contexte: 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.

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

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W.B. Yeats livre The Tower