Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams

A Sort of a Song

A Sort of a Song
Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait,
sleepless.

518
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams

Après le Bain

Après le Bain
I gotta
buy me a new
girdle.
(I'll buy
you one) O.K.
(I wish
you'd wiggle
that way
for me,
I'd be

416
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams

Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!

"Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!"
You sullen pig of a man
you force me into the mud
with your stinking ash-cart!
Brother!
--if we were rich

461
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams

A Celebration

A Celebration
A middle-northern March, now as always--
gusts from the South broken against cold winds--
but from under, as if a slow hand lifted a tide,

545
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Youth And Age

Youth And Age

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

430
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Words For Music Perhaps

Words For Music Perhaps

I - CRAZY JANE AND THE BISHOP

BRING me to the blasted oak
That I, midnight upon the stroke,
(All find safety in the t…

351
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Who Goes With Fergus?

Who Goes With Fergus?

WHO will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood's woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up…

314
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Wisdom

Wisdom


THE true faith discovered was
When painted panel, statuary.
Glass-mosaic, window-glass,
Amended what was told awry
By some peasa…

456
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

When You Are Old

When You Are Old

WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look <…

369
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

What Was Lost

What Was Lost

I SING what was lost and dread what was won,
I walk in a battle fought over again,
My king a lost king, and lost soldiers my men;
Fee…

330
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Veronica's Napkin

Veronica's Napkin

THE Heavenly Circuit; Berenice's Hair;
Tent-pole of Eden; the tent's drapery;
Symbolical glory of thc earth and air!
The Father a…

325
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation

Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation

HOW should the world be luckier if this house,
Where passion and precision have been one
Time out of mind, beca…

413
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Under Saturn

Under Saturn

DO not because this day I have grown saturnine
Imagine that lost love, inseparable from my thought
Because I have no other youth, can make m…

438
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Under The Round Tower

Under The Round Tower

'ALTHOUGH I'd lie lapped up in linen
A deal I'd sweat and little earn
If I should live as live the neighbours,'
Cried the beg…

376
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Two Songs of a Fool

Two Songs of a Fool

I

A speckled cat and a tame hare
Eat at my hearthstone
And seep there;
And both look up to me alone
For learn…

382
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Two Years Later

Two Years Later

HAS no one said those daring
Kind eyes should be more learn'd?
Or warned you how despairing
The moths are when they are burned?

435
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Tom O'Roughley

Tom O'Roughley

'THOUGH logic-choppers rule the town,
And every man and maid and boy
Has marked a distant object down,
An aimless joy is a pure joy,…

447
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Towards Break Of Day

Towards Break Of Day

WAS it the double of my dream
The woman that by me lay
Dreamed, or did we halve a dream
Under the first cold gleam of day?

491
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire

To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire

WHILE I wrought out these fitful Danaan rhymes,
My heart would brim with dreams about the times
When we bent down …

428
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time

Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!
Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways:
Cuchulain battling with the…

491
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

To His Heart, Bidding It Have No Fear

To His Heart, Bidding It Have No Fear

BE you still, be you still, trembling heart;
Remember the wisdom out of the old days:
Him who trembles before the f…

303
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

To be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee

To be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee

I, THE poet William Yeats,
With old mill boards and sea-green slates,
And smithy work from the Gort forge,

270
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

To An Isle In The Water

To An Isle In The Water

SHY one, Shy one,
Shy one of my heart,
She moves in the firelight
pensively apart.
She carries in the dishes,
A…

298
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

To A Young Beauty

To A Young Beauty

DEAR fellow-artist, why so free
With every sort of company,
With every Jack and Jill?
Choose your companions from the best;

370