A Friend's Illness Poem by William Butler Yeats

A Friend's Illness

Rating: 3.0


SICKNESS brought me this
Thought, in that scale of his:
Why should I be dismayed
Though flame had burned the whole
World, as it were a coal,
Now I have seen it weighed
Against a soul?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Bri Edwards 30 October 2021

why is this famous? ? MAYBE it ain't. : ( or : )

1 0 Reply
Julia Luber 19 June 2019

brief, bit curious, succinct

0 0 Reply
Resh Kav 23 June 2017

sad tone. nice to read this

0 0 Reply
Donald Bramley 13 February 2014

It takes me to the breaking point of query, Good!

1 4 Reply
Andrew Hoellering 15 December 2009

The suffering of a person one loves moves one more than the suffering of those not know to one personally. A simple thought, beautifully expressed, but not necessarily true. Think of Miranda's line in Shakespeare's Tempest; 'How I suffered with those that I saw suffer.' It takes an exceptional person to feel that way.

7 1 Reply
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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

County Dublin / Ireland
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