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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

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Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“To sit beside the board and drink good wine And watch the turf smoke coiling from the fire And feel content and wisdom in your heart, This is the best of life; when we are young We long to tread a way none trod before, But find the excellent old way through love And through the care of children to the hour Forbidding Fate and Time and Change goodbye.”

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Book:When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales
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“...Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World! You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing. Beauty grown sad with its eternity Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea. Our long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait, For God has bid them share an equal fate; And when at last defeated in His wars, They have gone down under the same white stars, We shall no longer hear the little cry Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die.”

WorldHeartMayLittlesLongMadeWarLastsDiesStarsWaitingWhiteGoneFateHeardSeaShareCrySweetSorrowEqualEternityRoseRingsShipsBellsTidesDefeatedSailGreyWovenSad Heart
Book:When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales
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“Speech after long silence; it is right, All other lovers being estranged or dead . . . That we descant and yet again descant Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.”

LongArtWisdomYoungSongSilenceLoversSpeechSupremeIgnorantThemeLong Silence
Book:The Yeats Reader, Revised Edition: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose
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“That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees - Those dying generations-at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unaging intellect.”

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Author:William Butler Yeats
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