William Butler Yeats
Ireland
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet
Quotes
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The fascination of what's difficult
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart.
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart.
The Green Helmet and Other Poems, 1910. The Fascination of What's Difficult
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds.
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds.
The Wild Swans at Coole 1919. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Everything that man esteems
Endures a moment or a day.
Love's pleasure drives his love away,
The painter's brush consumes his dreams.
Endures a moment or a day.
Love's pleasure drives his love away,
The painter's brush consumes his dreams.
The Tower, 1928. Two Songs from a Play
But what is Whiggery?
A leveling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of a drunkard's eye.
A leveling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of a drunkard's eye.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. The Seven Sages
Mock mockers after that
That would not lift a hand maybe
To help good, wise or great
To bar that foul storm out, for we
Traffic in mockery.
That would not lift a hand maybe
To help good, wise or great
To bar that foul storm out, for we
Traffic in mockery.
The Tower, 1928. Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen
The true faith discovered was
When painted panel, statuary,
Glass-mosaic, window-glass,
Amended what was told awry
By some peasant gospeler.
When painted panel, statuary,
Glass-mosaic, window-glass,
Amended what was told awry
By some peasant gospeler.
The Tower, 1928. Wisdom
Consume my heart away, sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is, and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is, and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
The Tower, 1928. Sailing to Byzantium
Come away, O human child!Â
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,Â
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,Â
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
The Stolen Child
The unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song
After great cathedral gong.
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song
After great cathedral gong.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems, 1933. Byzantium
The Land of Faery,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue.
The Land of Heart's Desire, 1894
Search
On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays