William Butler Yeats Poems

Bolt and bar the shutter,
For the foul winds blow:
Our minds are at their best this night,
And I seem to know
...

I have pointed out the yelling pack,
The hare leap to the wood,
And when I pass a compliment
Rejoice as lover should
...

Like the moon her kindness is,
If kindness I may call
What has no comprehension in't,
But is the same for all
...

'She will change,' I cried.
'Into a withered crone.'
The heart in my side,
That so still had lain,
...

All the words that I utter,
And all the words that I write,
Must spread out their wings untiring,
And never rest in their flight,
...

The old priest Peter Gilligan
Was weary night and day
For half his flock were in their beds
Or under green sods lay.
...

BELOVED, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
...

ALL things can tempt me from this craft of verse:
One time it was a woman's face, or worse --
The seeming needs of my fool-driven land;
...

THAT civilisation may not sink,
Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
To a distant post;
...

'YOUR eyes that once were never weary of mine
Are bowed in sotrow under pendulous lids,
Because our love is waning.'
...