Poems

Poems List

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William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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. <…

425
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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…

445
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 t…

253
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 m…

375
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Symbols

Symbols


A STORM BEATEN old watch-tower,
A blind hermit rings the hour.
All-destroying sword-blade still
Carried by the wandering …

314
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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,

395
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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.

389
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 …

451
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 delicat…

279
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 m…

395
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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…

528
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 b…

378
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 …

337
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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---a…

567
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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…

361
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 …

430
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 stor…

291
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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

373
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Parting

Parting


He. Dear, I must be gone
While night Shuts the eyes
Of the household spies;
That song announces dawn.

She…

328
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 a…

412
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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 stree…

302
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

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,

403
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

Old Tom Again

Old Tom Again

Things out of perfection sail,
And all their swelling canvas wear,
Nor shall the self-begotten fail
Though fantastic men su…

278
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats

On A Political Prisoner

On A Political Prisoner

SHE that but little patience knew,
From childhood on, had now so much
A grey gull lost its fear and flew
Down to …

397