Poems List
Explore poems from our collection
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 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 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 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 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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
Peace
Peace
AH, that Time could touch a form
That could show what Homer's age
Bred to be a hero's wage.
'Were not all her life but storm
Woul…
Presences
Presences
THIS night has been so strange that it seemed
As if the hair stood up on my head.
From going-down of the sun I have dreamed
That wo…
On Woman
On Woman
MAY God be praised for woman
That gives up all her mind,
A man may find in no man
A friendship of her kind
That covers all he has br…
Parting
Parting
He. Dear, I must be gone
While night Shuts the eyes
Of the household spies;
That song announces dawn.
She. No, night's bi…
On Those That Hated 'The Playboy Of The Western World'
On Those That Hated 'The Playboy Of The Western World'
ONCE, when midnight smote the air,
Eunuchs ran through Hell and met
On every crowded street to sta…
On Hearing That The Students Of Our New University Have Joined The
On Hearing That The Students Of Our New University Have Joined The
Agitation Against Immoral Literat
Where, where but here have pride and Truth,
That lon…