tale.fyi

Poetry ▾
contents
  1. Song of the Faeries
  2. Love and Death
  3. The Seeker
  4. In a Drawing-Room
  5. Life
  6. The Two Titans
  7. On Mr. Nettleship’s Picture at the Royal Hibernian Academy
  8. Remembrance
  9. Love Song
  10. In Church
  11. A Summer Evening
  12. In the Firelight
  13. Where My Books Go
  14. The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
  15. The Wanderings of Usheen1 “Give me the world if thou wilt, but grant me an asylum for my affections.” Tulka To Edwin J. Ellis
  16. The Danaan Quicken Tree2
  17. Wisdom and Dreams
  18. Time and the Witch Vivien
  19. Kanva on Himself
  20. The Phantom Ship
  21. A Lover’s Quarrel Among the Fairies
  22. How Ferencz Renyi Kept Silent
  23. The Fairy Doctor
  24. The Priest and the Fairy
  25. The Fairy Pedant
  26. She Who Dwelt Among the Sycamores
  27. A Legend A drowned city is supposed to lie under the waters of Lough Gill.
  28. Street Dancers
  29. Quatrains and Aphorisms
  30. When You Are Sad
  31. The Rose34 “Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova! Sero te amavi.” S. Augustine To Lionel Johnson
  32. Crossways5 “The stars are threshed, and the souls are threshed from the husks.” William Blake To A. E.
  33. To Some I Have Talked with by the Fire
  34. A Song of the Rosy Cross
  35. The Friends That Have It I Do Wrong
  36. Accursed Who Brings to Light of Day
  37. The Well and the Tree
  38. The Wind Among the Reeds89
  39. The Old Age of Queen Maeve
  40. Baile and Aillinn Argument. Baile and Aillinn were lovers, but Aengus, the Master of Love, wishing them to be happy in his own land among the dead, told to each a story of the other’s death, so that their hearts were broken and they died.
  41. In the Seven Woods
  42. Introductory Poems from “The Shadowy Waters”
  43. From The Green Helmet and Other Poems
  44. Responsibilities “In dreams begins responsibility.” Old Play “How am I fallen from myself, for a long time now I have not seen the Prince of Chang in my dreams.” Khong-fou-tseu
  45. The Wild Swans at Coole
  46. Michael Robartes and the Dancer
  47. The Tower
  48. Endnotes
English ▾

Poetry

W. B. Yeats

free · 75,107 words · ~5 h read

text from Standard Ebooks

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Song of the Faeries

A man has a hope for heaven,
But soulless a faery dies,
As a leaf that is old, and withered and cold
When the wint’ry vapours rise.

Soon shall our wings be stilled,
And our laughter over and done,
So let us dance where the yellow lance
Of the barley shoots in the sun.

So let us dance on the fringed waves,
And shout at the wisest owls
In their downy caps, and startle the naps
Of the dreaming water-fowls.

And fight for the black sloe-berries,
For soulless a faery dies,
As a leaf that is old, and withered and cold
When the wintry vapours rise.

Love and Death

Behold the flashing waters,
A cloven, dancing jet,
That from the milk-white marble
For ever foam and fret;
Far off in drowsy valleys
Where the meadow-saffrons blow,
The feet of summer dabble
In their coiling calm and slow.
The banks are worn for ever
By a people sadly gay:
A Titan, with loud laughter,
Made them of fire and clay.
Go ask the springing flowers,
And the flowing air above,
What are the twin-born waters,
And they’ll answer Death and Love.

With wreaths of withered flowers
Two lonely spirits wait,
With wreaths of withered flowers,
’Fore paradise’s gate.
They may not pass the portal,
Poor earth-enkindled pair,
Though sad is many a spirit
Το pass and leave them there
Still staring at their flowers,
That dull and faded are.
If one should rise beside thee,
The other is not far.
Go ask the youngest angel,
She will say with bated breath,
By the door of Mary’s garden
Are the spirits Love and Death.

The Seeker

A Dramatic Poem in Two Scenes

Scene I

A woodland valley at evening. Around a wood-fire sit three shepherds; without a curve rises the smoke.

First Shepherd

Heavy with wool the sheep are gathered in,
And through the mansion of the spirit rove
My dreams o’er thoughts of plenty as the red-
Eyed panthers in their desert caverns rove
And rove unceasing round their dreadful brood.

Second Shepherd

O brother, lay thy flute upon thy lips,
It is the voice of all our hearts that laugh.

The first Shepherd puts the flute to his lips; there comes from it a piercing cry. He drops it.

First Shepherd

It is possessed.

Third Shepherd

Nay, give it me, and I will sound a measure;
And unto it we’ll dance upon the sward.

Puts it to his lips. A voice out of the flute still more mournful.

First Shepherd

An omen!

Second Shepherd

An omen!

Third Shepherd

A creeping horror is all over me.

Enter an Old Knight. They cast themselves down before him.

Knight

Are all things well with you and with your sheep?

Second Shepherd

Yes, all is very well.

First Shepherd

Whence comest thou?

Knight

Shepherds, I came this morning to your land
From threescore years of dream-led wandering
Where spice isles nestle on the star-trod seas,
And where the polar winds and waters wrestle
In endless dark, and by the weedy marge
Of India’s rivers, rolling on in light.
But soon my wandering shall be done I know.
A voice has told me how within this land
There lies the long-lost forest of the sprite,
The sullen wood. But many woods I see
Where to themselves innumerable birds
Make moan and cry.

First Shepherd

Within yon sunless valley
Between the horned hills—

Knight

Shepherds, farewell!
And peace be with you, peace and wealth of days.

Second Shepherd

Seek not that wood, for there the goblin snakes
Go up and down, and raise their heads and sing
With little voices songs of fearful things.

Third Shepherd

No shepherd foot has ever dared its depths.

First Shepherd

The very squirrel dies that enters it.

Knight

Shepherds, farewell!

Goes.

Second Shepherd

He soon will be

First Shepherd

Ashes
Before the wind.

Third Shepherd

Saw you his eyes a-glitter,
His body shake?

Second Shepherd

Aye, quivering as yon smoke
That from the fire is ever pouring up,
Within the woodways, blue as the halcyon’s wing,
Star-envious.

Third Shepherd

He was a spirit, brother.

Second Shepherd

The blessed God was good to send us such,
To make us glad with wonder as we sat
Weary of watching round the fire at night.

restoring your place…

fetching the rest…

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thank you for reading

Poetry by W. B. Yeats. The text is in the US public domain, from the Standard Ebooks edition. Served from our own copy; read on their site for the full edition with images and typography.

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