Poems List
Explore poems from our collection
The Crazed Moon
The Crazed Moon
CRAZED through much child-bearing
The moon is staggering in the sky;
Moon-struck by the despairing
Glances of her wandering eye
The Coming Of Wisdom With Time
The Coming Of Wisdom With Time
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;…
The Cold Heaven
The Cold Heaven
SUDDENLY I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination a…
The Cloak, The Boat And The Shoes
The Cloak, The Boat And The Shoes
'What do you make so fair and bright?'
'I make the cloak of Sorrow:
O lovely to see in all men's sight
Shal…
The Chambermaid's First Song
The Chambermaid's First Song
HOW came this ranger
Now sunk in rest,
Stranger with strangcr.
On my cold breast?
What's left to Sigh for?
The Choice
The Choice
The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansio…
The Black Tower
The Black Tower
SAY that the men of the old black tower,
Though they but feed as the goatherd feeds,
Their money spent, their wine gone sour,
Lack …
The Cap And Bells
The Cap And Bells
THE jester walked in the garden:
The garden had fallen still;
He bade his soul rise upward
And stand on her window-sill.
It…
The Ballad Of The Foxhunter
The Ballad Of The Foxhunter
'Lay me in a cushioned chair;
Carry me, ye four,
With cushions here and cushions there,
To see the world once more.
The Ballad Of Father O'Hart
The Ballad Of Father O'Hart
GOOD Father John O'Hart
In penal days rode out
To a Shoneen who had free lands
And his own snipe and trout.
In tr…
The Apparitions
The Apparitions
BECAUSE there is safety in derision
I talked about an apparition,
I took no trouble to convince,
Or seem plausible to a man of sens…
The Attack on ‘The Playboy of the Western World,’ 1907
The Attack on ‘The Playboy of the Western World,’ 1907
Once, when midnight smote the air,
Eunuchs ran through Hell and met
From thoroughfare to thoroughf…
Symbols
Symbols
A STORM BEATEN old watch-tower,
A blind hermit rings the hour.
All-destroying sword-blade still
Carried by the wandering fool.
…
Sweet Dancer
Sweet Dancer
THE girl goes dancing there
On the leaf-sown, new-mown, smooth
Grass plot of the garden;
Escaped from bitter youth,
Escaped out …
Stream And Sun At Glendalough
Stream And Sun At Glendalough
THROUGH intricate motions ran
Stream and gliding sun
And all my heart seemed gay:
Some stupid thing that I had done <…
Spilt Milk
Spilt Milk
WE that have done and thought,
That have thought and done,
Must ramble, and thin out
Like milk spilt on a stone.
Solomon And The Witch
Solomon And The Witch
AND thus declared that Arab lady:
'Last night, where under the wild moon
On grassy mattress I had laid me,
Within my arms gre…
Slim adolescence that a nymph has stripped
Slim adolescence that a nymph has stripped
III
Slim adolescence that a nymph has stripped,
Peleus on Thetis stares.
Her limbs are delicate as an ey…
Shepherd And Goatherd
Shepherd And Goatherd
Shepherd. That cry's from the first cuckoo of the year.
I wished before it ceased.
Goatherd. Nor bird nor beast
C…
September 1913
September 1913
What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, u…
Sailing To Byzantium
Sailing To Byzantium
I
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
---Those dying generations---at their so…
Responsibilities - Introduction
Responsibilities - Introduction
Pardon, old fathers, if you still remain
Somewhere in ear-shot for the story's end,
Old Dublin merchant "free of the ten …
Remorse For Intemperate Speech
Remorse For Intemperate Speech
I RANTED to the knave and fool,
But outgrew that school,
Would transform the part,
Fit audience found, but cannot ru…
Reconciliation
Reconciliation
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 t…