by W. B. Yeats
That patching old heels they may shriek, I take to chisel and plane.
Malachi Stilt-Jack am I, whatever I learned has run wild, From collar to collar, from stilt to stilt, from father to child.
All metaphor, Malachi, stilts and all. A barnacle goose
Far up in the stretches of night; night splits and the dawn breaks loose;
I, through the terrible novelty of light, stalk on, stalk on;
Those great sea-horses bare their teeth and laugh at the dawn.
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 sense.
Distrustful of thar popular eye
Whether it be bold or sly.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.
I have found nothing half so good
As my long-planned half solitude,
Where I can sit up half the night
With some friend that has the wit
Not to allow his looks to tell
When I am unintelligible.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.
When a man grows old his joy
Grows more deep day after day,
His empty heart is full at length,
But he has need of all that strength
Because of the increasing Night
That opens her mystery and fright.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.
A NATIVITY
WHAT woman hugs her infant there?
Another star has shot an ear.
What made the drapery glisten so?
Not a man but Delacroix.
What made the ceiling waterproof?
Landor’s tarpaulin on the roof
What brushes fly and moth aside?
Irving and his plume of pride.
What hurries out the knaye and dolt?
Talma and his thunderbolt.
Why is the woman terror-struck?
Can there be mercy in that look?
MAN AND THE ECHO
Man. In a cleft that’s christened Alt
Under broken stone I halt
At the bottom of a pit
That broad noon has never lit,
And shout a secret to the stone.
All that I have said and done,
Now that I am old and ill,
Turns into a question till
I lie awake night after night
And never get the answers right.
Did that play of mine send out
Certain men the English shot?
Did words of mine put too great strain
On that woman’s reeling brain?
Could my spoken words have checked
That whereby a house lay wrecked?
And all seems evil until I
Sleepless would lie down and die.
Echo. Lie down and die.
Man. That were to shirk
The spiritual intellect’s great work,
And shirk it in vain. There is no release
In a bodkin or disease,
Nor can there be work so great
As that which cleans man’s dirty slate.
While man can still his body keep
Wine or love drug him to sleep,
Waking he thanks the Lord that he
Has body and its stupidity,
But body gone he sleeps no more,
And till his intellect grows sure
That all’s arranged in one clear view,
pursues the thoughts that I pursue,
Then stands in judgment on his soul,
And, all work done, dismisses all
Out of intellect and sight
And sinks at last into the night.
Echo. Into the night.
Man. O Rocky Voice,
Shall we in that great night rejoice?
What do we know but that we face
One another in this place?
But hush, for I have lost the theme,
Its joy or night-seem but a dream;
Up there some hawk or owl has struck,
Dropping out of sky or rock,
A stricken rabbit is crying out,
And its cry distracts my thought.
THE CIRCUS ANIMALS’ DESERTION
I
I sought a theme and sought for it in vain,
I sought it daily for six weeks or so.
Maybe at last, being but a broken man,
I must be satisfied with my heart, although
Winter and summer till old age began
My circus animals were all on show,
Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot,
Lion and woman and the Lord knows what.
II
What can I but enumerate old themes?
First that sea-rider Oisin led by the nose
Through three enchanted islands, allegorical dreams,
Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose,
Themes of the embittered heart, or so it seems,
That might adorn old songs or courtly shows;
But what cared I that set him on to ride,
I, starved for the bosom of his faery bride?
And then a counter-truth filled out its play,
‘The Countess Cathleen’ was the name I gave it;
She, pity-crazed, had given her soul away,
But masterful Heaven had intetvened to save it.
I thought my dear must her own soul destroy,
So did fanaticism and hate enslave it,
And this brought forth a dream and soon enough
This dream itself had all my thought and love.
And when the Fool and Blind Man stole the bread
Cuchulain fought the ungovernable sea;
Heart-mysteries there, and yet when all is said
It was the dream itself enchanted me:
Character isolated by a deed
To engross the present and dominate memory.
players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.
III
Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder’s gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.
POLITICS
HOW can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here’s a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there’s a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
The Poems
23 Fitzroy Road, North London, where Yeats stayed with his family between 1867 and 1873
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
THE WANDERINGS OF USHEEN
THE SONG OF THE HAPPY SHEPHERD
THE SAD SHEPHERD
THE CLOAK, THE BOAT, AND THE SHOES
ANASHUYA AND VIJAYA
THE INDIAN UPON GOD
THE INDIAN TO HIS LOVE
THE FALLING OF THE LEAVES
EPHEMERA
THE MADNESS OF KING GOLL
THE STOLEN CHILD
TO AN ISLE IN THE WATER
DOWN BY THE SALLEY GARDENS
THE MEDITATION OF THE OLD FISHERMAN
THE BAL
LAD OF FATHER O’HART
THE BALLAD OF MOLL MAGEE
THE BALLAD OF THE FOXHUNTER
TO THE ROSE UPON THE ROOD OF TIME
FERGUS AND THE DRUID
THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN
THE ROSE OF THE WORLD
THE ROSE OF PEACE
THE ROSE OF BATTLE
A FAERY SONG
THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE
A CRADLE SONG
THE PITY OF LOVE
THE SORROW OF LOVE
WHEN YOU ARE OLD
THE WHITE BIRDS
A DREAM OF DEATH
A DREAM OF A BLESSED SPIRIT
WHO GOES WITH FERGUS?
THE MAN WHO DREAMED OF FAERYLAND
THE DEDICATION TO A BOOK OF STORIES SELECTED FROM THE IRISH NOVELISTS
THE LAMENTATION OF THE OLD PENSIONER
THE BALLAD OF FATHER GILLIGAN
THE TWO TREES
TO IRELAND IN THE COMING TIMES
THE HOSTING OF THE SIDHE
THE EVERLASTING VOICES
THE MOODS
AEDH TELLS OF THE ROSE IN HIS HEART
THE HOST OF THE AIR
BREASAL THE FISHERMAN
A CRADLE SONG
INTO THE TWILIGHT
THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS
THE SONG OF THE OLD MOTHER
THE FIDDLER OF DOONEY
THE HEART OF THE WOMAN
AEDH LAMENTS THE LOSS OF LOVE
MONGAN LAMENTS THE CHANGE THAT HAS COME UPON HIM AND HIS BELOVED
MICHAEL ROBARTES BIDS HIS BELOVED BE AT PEACE
HANRAHAN REPROVES THE CURLEW
MICHAEL ROBARTES REMEMBERS FORGOTTEN BEAUTY
A POET TO HIS BELOVED
AEDH GIVES HIS BELOVED CERTAIN RHYMES
TO MY HEART, BIDDING IT HAVE NO FEAR
THE CAP AND BELLS
THE VALLEY OF THE BLACK PIG
MICHAEL ROBARTES ASKS FORGIVENESS BECAUSE OF HIS MANY MOODS
AEDH TELLS OF A VALLEY FULL OF LOVERS
AEDH TELLS OF THE PERFECT BEAUTY
AEDH HEARS THE CRY OF THE SEDGE
AEDH THINKS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SPOKEN EVIL OF HIS BELOVED
THE BLESSED
THE SECRET ROSE
HANRAHAN LAMENTS BECAUSE OF HIS WANDERINGS
THE TRAVAIL OF PASSION
THE POET PLEADS WITH HIS FRIEND FOR OLD FRIENDS
HANRAHAN SPEAKS TO THE LOVERS OF HIS SONGS IN COMING DAYS
AEDH PLEADS WITH THE ELEMENTAL POWERS
AEDH WISHES HIS BELOVED WERE DEAD
AEDH WISHES FOR THE CLOTHS OF HEAVEN
MONGAN THINKS OF HIS PAST GREATNESS
TO LADY GREGORY
THE HARP OF AENGUS
THE OLD AGE OF QUEEN MAEVE
BAILE AND AILLINN
IN THE SEVEN WOODS.
THE OLD AGE OF QUEEN MAEVE.
BAILE AND AILLINN.
THE ARROW.
THE FOLLY OF BEING COMFORTED.
THE WITHERING OF THE BOUGHS.
ADAM’S CURSE.
THE SONG OF RED HANRAHAN.
THE OLD MEN ADMIRING THEMSELVES IN THE WATER.
UNDER THE MOON.
THE PLAYERS ASK FOR A BLESSING ON THE PSALTERIES AND THEMSELVES.
THE RIDER FROM THE NORTH.
HIS DREAM
A WOMAN HOMER SUNG
THAT THE NIGHT COME
THE CONSOLATION
FRIENDS
NO SECOND TROY
RECONCILIATION
KING AND NO KING
THE COLD HEAVEN
PEACE
AGAINST UNWORTHY PRAISE
THE FASCINATION OF WHAT’S DIFFICULT
A DRINKING SONG
THE COMING OF WISDOM WITH TIME
ON HEARING THAT THE STUDENTS OF OUR NEW UNIVERSITY HAVE JOINED THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS AND THE AGITATION AGAINST IMMORAL LITERATURE
TO A POET, WHO WOULD HAVE ME PRAISE CERTAIN BAD POETS, IMITATORS OF HIS AND MINE
THE ATTACK ON THE “PLAY BOY”
A LYRIC FROM AN UNPUBLISHED PLAY
UPON A HOUSE SHAKEN BY THE LAND AGITATION
AT THE ABBEY THEATRE
THESE ARE THE CLOUDS
AT GALWAY RACES
A FRIEND’S ILLNESS
ALL THINGS CAN TEMPT ME
THE YOUNG MAN’S SONG
INTRODUCTORY RHYMES
THE GREY ROCK
THE TWO KINGS
TO A WEALTHY MAN WHO PROMISED A SECOND SUBSCRIPTION TO THE DUBLIN MUNICIPAL GALLERY IF IT WERE PROVED THE PEOPLE WANTED PICTURES
SEPTEMBER 1913
TO A FRIEND WHOSE WORK HAS COME TO NOTHING
PAUDEEN
TO A SHADE
WHEN HELEN LIVED
THE ATTACK ON ‘THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD,’ 1907
THE THREE BEGGARS
THE THREE HERMITS
BEGGAR TO BEGGAR CRIED
THE WELL AND THE TREE
RUNNING TO PARADISE
THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN
THE PLAYER QUEEN
THE REALISTS
THE WITCH
THE PEACOCK
THE MOUNTAIN TOMB
TO A CHILD DANCING IN THE WIND
A MEMORY OF YOUTH
FALLEN MAJESTY
FRIENDS
THE COLD HEAVEN
THAT THE NIGHT COME
AN APPOINTMENT
THE MAGI
THE DOLLS
A COAT
CLOSING RHYMES
THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE
IN MEMORY OF MAJOR ROBERT GREGORY
AN IRISH AIRMAN FORESEES HIS DEATH
MEN IMPROVE WITH THE YEARS
THE COLLAR-BONE OF A HARE
UNDER THE ROUND TOWER
SOLOMON TO SHEBA
THE LIVING BEAUTY
A SONG
TO A YOUNG BEAUTY
TO A YOUNG GIRL
THE SCHOLARS
TOM O’ROUGHLEY
THE SAD SHEPHERD
LINES WRITTEN IN DEJECTION
THE DAWN
ON WOMAN
THE FISHERMAN
THE HAWK
MEMORY
HER PRAISE
THE PEOPLE
HIS PHOENIX
A THOUGHT FROM PROPERTIUS
BROKEN DREAMS
A DEEP-SWORN VOW
PRESENCES
THE BALLOON OF THE MIND
TO A SQUIRREL AT KYLE-NA-GNO
ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM
IN MEMORY OF ALFRED POLLEXFEN
UPON A DYING LADY
HER COURTESY
CERTAIN ARTISTS BRING HER DOLLS AND DRAWINGS
SHE TURNS THE DOLLS’ FACES TO THE WALL
THE END OF DAY
HER RACE
HER COURAGE
HER FRIENDS BRING HER A CHRISTMAS TREE
EGO DOMINUS TUUS
A PRAYER ON GOING INTO MY HOUSE
THE PHASES OF THE MOON
THE CAT AND THE MOON
THE SAINT AND THE HUNCHBACK
TWO SONGS OF A FOOL
ANOTHER SONG OF A FOOL
THE DOUBLE VISION OF MICHAEL ROBARTES
MICHAEL ROBARTES AND THE DANCER
SOLOMON AND THE WITCH
AN IMAGE FROM A PAST LIFE
UNDER SATURN
EASTER, 1916
SIXTEEN DEAD MEN
THE ROSE TREE
ON A POLITICAL PRISONER
THE LEADERS OF THE CROWD
TOWARDS BREAK OF DAY
DEMON AND BEAST
THE SECOND COMING
A PRAYER FOR MY DAUGHTER
A MEDITATION IN TIME OF WAR
TO BE CARVED ON A STONE AT THOOR BALLYLEE
SAILING TO BYZANTIUM
THE TOWER
MEDITATIONS IN TIME OF CIVIL WAR
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND NINETEEN
THE WHEEL
YOUTH AND AGE
THE NEW FACES
A PRAYER FOR MY SON
TWO SONGS FROM A PLAY
LEDA AND THE SWAN
ON A PICTURE OF A BLACK CENTAUR BY EDMUND DULAC
AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN
COLONUS’ PRAISE
WISDOM
THE FOOL BY THE ROADSIDE
THE HERO, THE GIRL, AND THE FOOL
OWEN AHERNE AND HIS DANCERS
A MAN YOUNG AND OLD
THE THREE MONUMENTS
THE GIFT OF HARUN AL-RASHID
ALL SOULS’ NIGHT
IN MEMORY OF EVA GORE-BOOTH AND CON MARKIEWICZ
DEATH
A DIALOGUE OF SELF AND SOUL
BLOOD AND THE MOON
OIL AND BLOOD
VERONICA’S NAPKIN
SYMBOLS
SPILT MILK
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER
STATISTICS
THREE MOVEMENTS
THE SEVEN SAGES
THE CRAZED MOON
COOLE PARK, 1929
COOLE AND BALLYLEE, 1931
FOR ANNE GREGORY
SWIFT’S EPITAPH
AT ALGECIRAS - A MEDITATON UPON DEATH
THE CHOICE
MOHINI CHATTERJEE
BYZANTIUM
THE MOTHER OF GOD
VACILLATION
QUARREL IN OLD AGE
THE RESULTS OF THOUGHT
GRATITUDE TO THE UNKNOWN INSTRUCTORS
REMORSE FOR INTEMPERATE SPEECH
STREAM AND SUN AT GLENDALOUGH
WORDS FOR MUSIC PERHAPS
A WOMAN YOUNG AND OLD
PARNELL’S FUNERAL
ALTERNATIVE SONG FOR THE SEVERED HEAD IN “THE KING OF THE GREAT CLOCK TOWER”
TWO SONGS REWRITTEN FOR THE TUNE’S SAKE
A PRAYER FOR OLD AGE
CHURCH AND STATE
SUPERNATURAL SONGS
RIBB AT THE TOMB OF BAILE AND AILLINN
RIBB DENOUNCES PATRICK
RIBB IN ECSTASY
THERE
RIBB CONSIDERS CHRISTIAN LOVE INSUFFICIEN
HE AND SHE
WHAT MAGIC DRUM?
WHENCE HAD THEY COME?
THE FOUR AGES OF MAN
CONJUNCTIONS
A NEEDLE’S EYE
MERU
THE GYRES
LAPIS LAZULI
IMITATED FROM THE JAPANESE
SWEET DANCER
THE THREE BUSHES
THE LADY’S FIRST SONG
THE LADY’S SECOND SONG
THE LADY’S THIRD SONG
THE LOVER’S SONG
THE CHAMBERMAID’S FIRST SONG
THE CHAMBERMAID’S SECOND SONG
AN ACRE OF GRASS
WHAT THEN?
BEAUTIFUL LOFTY THINGS
A CRAZED GIRL
TO DOROTHY WELLESLEY