180 quotes
Come let us mock at the great
That had such burdens on the mind
And toiled so hard and late
To leave some monument behind,
Nor thought of the levelling wind.
The Tower (1928)
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
Only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.
Nothing that we love over-much
Is ponderable to our touch.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
Crossways (1889)
Hammer your thoughts into unity.
All teeth were drawn, all ancient tricks unlearned,
And a great army but a showy thing;
What matter that no cannon had been turned
Into a ploughshare?
The Tower (1928)
You say, as I have often given tongue
In praise of what another's said or sung,
'Twere politic to do the like by these;
But was there ever a dog that praised his fleas?
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)
The woods of Arcady are dead,
And over is their antique joy;
Of old the world on dreaming fed;
Grey Truth is now her painted toy;
Yet still she turns her restless head.
Crossways (1889)
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)
Hurrah for revolution and more cannon-shot!
A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot.
Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!
The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.
Last Poems (1936)
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.
Last Poems (1936)
Test every work of intellect or faith,
And everything that your own hands have wrought
And call those works extravagance of breath
That are not suited for such men as come
Proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies,
For all their broom-sticks and their tears,
Their angry tears, are gone.
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)
Then he struggled with the mind;
His proud heart he left behind. Now his wars on God begin;
At stroke of midnight God shall win.
Parnell's Funeral and Other Poems (1935)
Could the impossible come to pass
She would have time to turn her eyes,
Her lover thought, upon the glass
And on the instant would grow wise.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)