William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeatswas an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth13 June 1865
CitySandymount, Ireland
CountryIreland
My chair was nearest to the fire In every company That talked of love or politics, Ere Time transfigured me.
Farewell - farewell, For I am weary of the weight of time.
I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.
Neither Christ nor Buddha nor Socrates wrote a book, for to do so is to exchange life for a logical process.
Cuchulain stirred, Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard The cars of battle and his own name cried; And fought with the invulnerable tide.
What is literature but the expression of moods by the vehicle of symbol and incident?
How but in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born?
I say that Roger Casement Did what he had to do, He died upon the gallows But that is nothing new.
O what fine thought we had because we thought that the worst rogues and rascals had died out.
But O, sick children of the world, Of all the many changing things In dreary dancing past us whirled, To the cracked tune that Chronos sings, Words alone are certain good.
But bear in mind your lover's wage Is what your looking-glass can show, And that he will turn green with rage At all that is not pictured there.
I summon to the winding ancient stair; Set all your mind upon the steep ascent
we can make our minds so still like water. That beings gather about us to see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer perhaps even with a fiercer life because of silence.