William Butler Yeats

Ireland
13 Jun 1865 // 28 Jan 1939
Poet

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enameling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
.

The Tower, 1928. Sailing to Byzantium


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