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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

Poet

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, and essayist, considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. His poetry deeply reflected the nationalist sentiments of Ireland and also showcased rich imagination and profound philosophical thinking. Yeats' poetic style was versatile, evolving from early romanticism to late symbolism, and his works have had a profound impact on literature both in Ireland and around the world.

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All Men Heart World Life Ifs Eye Dream Knows May Mind

Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span; Cease to remember the delights of youth, travel-wearied aged man; Delight becomes death-longing if all longing else be vain.”

Ifs Men Life Giving Remember Asks Youth Longing Endure Delight Cease Vain Long Life

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays

“Surely among a rich man's flowering lawns, Amid the rustle of his planted hills, Life overflows without ambitious pains; And rains down life until the basin spills, And mounts more dizzy high the more it rains As though to choose whatever shape it wills.”

Men Life Pain Rich Shapes Rain Riches Hills Ambitious Lawns Spills Rich Man Flowering Overflow Dizzy

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“Being young you have not known The fool's triumph, nor yet Love lost as soon as won, Nor the best labourer dead And all the sheaves to bind.”

Life Young Lost Known Fool Innocence Triumph Lost Love Labourers

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“And that enquiring man John Synge comes next, That dying chose the living world for text And never could have rested in the tomb But that, long travelling, he had come Towards nightfall upon certain set apart In a most desolate stony place.”

Men World Life Long Certain Next Dying Isolation Tombs Desolate Nightfall

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“Some burn damp faggots, others may consume The entire combustible world in one small room As though dried straw, and if we turn about The bare chimney is gone black out Because the work had finished in that flare.”

Ifs World Life May Turns Black Rooms Gone Finished Straws Damp Chimneys Flare Small Rooms

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“yet it seems Life scarce can cast a fragrance on the wind, Scarce spread a glory to the morning beams, But the torn petals strew the garden plot; And there's but common greenness after that.”

Life Seems Common Morning Wind Glory Garden Casts Spread Plot Torn Fragrance Scarce Beam Petals Transience

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“There is no release In a bodkin or disease, Nor can there be a work so great As that which cleans man's dirty slate.”

Men Life Art Artist Disease Release Dirty Slate

Book:The Major Works

Source: The Major Works

“Let the new faces play what tricks they will In the old rooms; night can outbalance day, Our shadows rove the garden gravel still, The living seem more shadowy than they.”

Life Stills Play Seems Faces Night Rooms Shadow Garden Tricks Gravel New Faces

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“What can books of men that wive In a dragon-guarded land, Paintings of the dolphin-drawn Sea-nymphs in their pearly wagons Do, but awake a hope to live...?”

Men Life Art Book Artist Hope Sea Land Painting Live Life Awake Dragons Guarded Dolphins Wagons Nymphs Hope To Live

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“Death and life were not Till man made up the whole, Made lock, stock and barrel Out of his bitter soul”

Men Life Made Soul Whole Bitter Life And Death Locks Barrels Lock Stock

Book:Poems of William Butler Yeats

Source: Poems of William Butler Yeats

“And if joy were not on the earth, There were an end of change and birth, And Earth and Heaven and Hell would die, And in some gloomy barrow lie Folded like a frozen fly.”

Ifs Life Ends Earth Joy Lying Dies Heaven Change Hell Birth Life Changing Frozen Heaven And Hell Gloomy

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“Many times man lives and dies Betweeen his two eternities, That of race and that of soul, And ancient Ireland knew it all. Whether man die in his bed Or the rifle knocks him dead”

Men Life Two Soul Dies Race Bed Eternity Ancient Meaning Of Life Ireland Rifles Life Means

Book:Selected Poems And Four Plays

Source: Selected Poems And Four Plays

“What can be shown? What true love be? All could be known or shown If Time were but gone.”

Ifs Time Love Is Known Knowledge Gone True Love Is

Book:The Major Works

Source: The Major Works

“The chief imagination of Christendom, Dante Alighieri, so utterly found himself That he has made that hollow face of his More plain to the mind's eye than any face But that of Christ.”

Mind Made Eye Faces Found Christ Imagination Chiefs Hollow Christendom

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“An age is the reversal of an age: When strangers murdered Emmet, Fitzgerald, Tone, We lived like men that watch a painted stage. What matter for the scene, the scene once gone: It had not touched our lives.”

Men Matter Age Watches Gone Our Lives Stage Scene Stranger Tone Touched What Matters Reversal

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays

“Come, fix upon me that accusing eye. I thirst for accusation. All that was sung. All that was said in Ireland is a lie Breed out of the contagion of the throng, Saving the rhyme rats hear before they die.”

Said Eye Lying Dies Saving Ireland Thirst Rhyme Rats Accusation Contagion Accusing

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“You ask what I have found and far and wide I go, Nothing but Cromwell's house and Cromwell's murderous crew, The lovers and the dancers are beaten into the clay, And the tall men and the swordsmen and the horsemen where are they?”

Men Asks Found House Lovers Wide Oppression Dancer Tall Crew Beaten Clay Horsemen Cromwell Swordsman

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“Come near; I would, before my time to go, Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways: Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.”

Way Proud Red Rose Ancient My Time Red Rose

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“only an aching heart Conceives a changeless work of art.”

Heart Art Artist Creation Longing Works Of Art Heart Ache

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make”

Art Form Artist Nature Natural Natural Things Drowsy Lords And Ladies Byzantium

Author:William Butler Yeats

“Come swish around my pretty punk And keep me dancing still That I may stay a sober man Although I drink my fill.”

Men May Stills Drink Dancing Drinking Dancer Punk Sober

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Boughs have their fruit and blossom At all times of the year; Rivers are running over With red beer and brown beer.”

Years Running Age Red Rivers Fruit All Time Beer Paradise Brown Golden Age

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“I can exchange opinion with any neighbouring mind, I have as healthy flesh and blood as any rhymer's had, But O! my Heart could bear no more when the upland caught the wind; I ran, I ran, from my love's side because my Heart went mad.”

Mind Heart I Can Sides Opinion Blood Wind Bears My Heart Healthy Madness Mad Caught Flesh Ran Flesh And Blood

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“May we two stand, When we are dead, beyond the setting suns, A little from other shades apart, With mingling hair, and play upon one lute.”

May Littles Two Play Prayer Sun Hair Setting Settings Shade Afterlife Mingling

Book:When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

Source: When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

“How could passion run so deep Had I never thought That the crime of being born Blackens all our lot?”

Running Passion Born Sin Mankind Crime

Book:Poems of William Butler Yeats

Source: Poems of William Butler Yeats

“Though pedantry denies, It's plain the Bible means That Solomon grew wise While talking with his queens.”

Mean Values Women Talking Wise Grew Deny Queens Solomon Pedantry

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“And there's a score of duchesses, surpassing womankind, Or who have found a painter to make them so for pay And smooth out stain and blemish with the elegance of his mind: I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.”

Mind Body Found Women Pay Youth Painter Score Smooth Portraits Elegance Stains Phoenix Surpassing Duchess

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“The women that I picked spoke sweet and low And yet gave tongue. "Hound voices" were they all.”

Women Voice Sweet Lows Tongue Spokes Hounds

Book:The Major Works

Source: The Major Works

“Women are hard and proud and stubborn-hearted, Their heads being turned with praise and flattery; And that is why their lovers are afraid To tell them a plain story.”

Hard Stories Women Proud Lovers Praise Stubborn Flattery Hearted

Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays

Source: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The Plays

“The women take so little stock In what I do or say They'd sooner leave their cosseting To hear a jackass bray.”

Littles Women Disdain Jackasses

Book:Poems of William Butler Yeats

Source: Poems of William Butler Yeats

“for never yet Has lover lived, but longed to wive Like them that are no more alive.”

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast, Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest.”

Heart Eye Fall Peace Hours Half Hair Lovers My Heart Beats Lonely Beloved Breasts Twilight Drowning Heart Beat

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns? I have been changed to a hound with one red ear; I have been in the Path of Stones and the Wood of Thorns.”

Has Beens White Path Changed Lovers Calling Red Stones Ears Woods Horns Thorns Deer Hounds

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“I dreamed that I stood in a valley, and amid sighs, For happy lovers passed two by two where I stood; And I dreamed my lost love came stealthily out of the wood With her cloud-pale eyelids falling on dream-dimmed eyes.”

Two Dream Eye Fall Lost Lovers Clouds Woods Valleys Lost Love Pale Sigh Eyelids

Book:Poems of William Butler Yeats

Source: Poems of William Butler Yeats

“All through the years of our youth Neither could have known Their own thought from the other's, We were so much at one.”

Years Known Youth Lovers Unity One Love Through The Years

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Pale brows, still hands and dim hair, I had a beautiful friend And dreamed that the old despair Would end in love in the end.”

Stills Ends Hands Beautiful Hope Hair Lovers Despair Pale Brows

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“I would that there was nothing in the world But my beloved that night and day had perished, And all that is and all that is to be, All that is not the meeting of our lips.”

World Night Lovers Meetings Lips Beloved

Book:The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

“I would that I were an old beggar Rolling a blind pearl eye, For he cannot see my lady Go gallivanting by.”

Eye Lovers Blind Rolling Pearls Blindness Beggar

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“I see a schoolboy when I think of him, With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window.”

Thinking Faces Sweet Window Noses Shops Shop Windows

Author:William Butler Yeats

“But stories that live longest Are sung above the glass, And Parnell loved his country And Parnell loved his lass.”

Country Stories Praise Glasses Parnell

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Shakespearean fish swam the sea, far away from land; Romantic fish swam in nets coming to the hand.”

Hands Literature Sea Land Tradition Fishes Heritage Far Away

Book:Selected Poems And Four Plays

Source: Selected Poems And Four Plays

“While on that old grey stone I sat Under the old wind-broken tree, I knew that One is animate, Mankind inanimate phantasy.”

Reality Tree Mankind Wind Broken Stones Sat Realism Grey

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Maybe the bride-bed brings despair, For each an imagined image brings And finds a real image there...”

Real Reality Marriage Bed Despair Realism Brides Disillusionment

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“Gaze no more in the bitter glass The demons, with their subtle guile, Lift up before us when they pass, Or only gaze a little while.”

Littles Reality Mirrors Glasses Bitter Lifts Demon Subtle Realism Guile

Book:When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

Source: When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

“Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again! The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.”

Changed Revolution Goes On Beggar Lashes Cannons Horseback

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“Both nuns and mothers worship images, But those the candles light are not as those That animate a mother's reveries, But keep a marble or a bronze repose.”

Light Mother Worship Candle Marble Repose Nun Bronze Reverie Candle Lights

Author:William Butler Yeats

“. . . you may think I waste my breath Pretending that there can be passion That has more life in it than death”

Thinking May Passion Waste Breaths Pretending Idealism

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“... What matter, so there is but fire In you, in me?”

Matter Passion Fire What Matters Emeralds

Book:The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats

“But boys and girls, pale from the imagined love Of solitary beds, knew what they were, That passion could bring character enough And pressed at midnighht in some public place Live lips upon a plummet-measured face.”

Enough Character Faces Girl Passion Imagination Boys Youth Bed Lips Solitary Pale Boy And Girl

Author:William Butler Yeats

“When an immortal passion breathes in mortal clay; Our hearts endure the scourge, the plaited thorns, the way Crowded with bitter faces, the wounds in palm and side, The vinegar-heavy sponge, the flowers by Kedron stream.”

Source: The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd Edition

About the Author

Born: June 13, 1865
Died: January 28, 1939
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 615

Related Topics

Men Heart World Life Ifs Eye Dream Knows May Mind

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Collected Poems of W. B. YeatsRelated source material

The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats: Volume I: The Poems, 2nd EditionRelated source material

The Major WorksRelated source material

Poems of William Butler YeatsRelated source material

Later PoemsRelated source material

Selected Poems And Four PlaysRelated source material

When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy TalesRelated source material

COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATSRelated source material

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early EssaysRelated source material

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol II: The PlaysRelated source material

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