Quotes from book
The Tower

Name: The Tower
Author: W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats

The Tower is a book of poems by W. B. Yeats, published in 1928. The Tower was Yeats's first major collection as Nobel Laureate after receiving the Nobel Prize in 1923. It is considered to be one of the poet's most influential volumes and was well received by the public.The title, which the book shares with the second poem, refers to Ballylee Castle, a Norman tower which Yeats purchased and restored in 1917. Yeats Gaelicized the name to Thoor Ballyllee, and it has retained the title to this day. Yeats often summered at Thoor Ballylee with his family until 1928.The book includes several of Yeats' most famous poems, including "Sailing to Byzantium," "Leda and the Swan," and "Among School Children."

“Locke sank into a swoon;
The Garden died;
God took the spinning-jenny
Out of his side.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Fragments http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1484/, I
The Tower (1928)

“Never had I more
Excited, passionate, fantastical
Imagination, nor an ear and eye
That more expected the impossible.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

The Tower http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1700/, I
The Tower (1928)

“Whatever flames upon the night
Man’s own resinous heart has fed.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

II, st. 2
The Tower (1928), Two Songs From a Play http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1741/

“Come let us mock at the great
That had such burdens on the mind
And toiled so hard and late
To leave some monument behind,
Nor thought of the levelling wind.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

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

“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.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

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

“Much did I rage when young,
Being by the world oppressed,
But now with flattering tongue
It speeds the parting guest.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Youth And Age http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1762/
The Tower (1928)

“O what fine thought we had because we thought
That the worst rogues and rascals had died out.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

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

“Does the imagination dwell the most
Upon a woman won or woman lost?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

The Tower, II, st. 13
The Tower (1928)

“Odour of blood when Christ was slain
Made all platonic tolerance vain
And vain all Doric discipline.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

II, st. 1
The Tower (1928), Two Songs From a Play http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1741/

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

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Wisdom http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1759/
The Tower (1928)

“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)

“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/

“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/

“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/

“Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

St. 3
The Tower (1928), Sailing to Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1575/

“Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare
Rides upon sleep: a drunken soldiery
Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,
To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

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

“O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Among School Children http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1437/, st. 8
The Tower (1928)
Context: Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?

“What matter that no cannon had been turned
Into a ploughshare?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

I, st. 3
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/
Context: All teeth were drawn, all ancient tricks unlearned,
And a great army but a showy thing;
What matter that no cannon had been turned
Into a ploughshare?

“Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

“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.