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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats Quotes

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Famous William Butler Yeats Quotes

“Had there been no Renaissance and no Italian influence to bring in the stories of other lands English history would, it may be, have become as important to the English imagination as the Greek Myths to the Greek imagination; and many plays by many poets would have woven it into a single story whose contours, vast as those of Greek myth, would have made living men and women seem like swallows building their nests under the architrave of some Temple of the Giants.”

MenMayMadeImportantPlayStoriesSeemsImaginationInfluenceLandBuildingPoetMen And WomenMythGreekGiantsTemplesItalianNestsRenaissanceWovenEnglish HistoryGreek Myth
Book:The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume IV: Early Essays
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“A sea captain when he stands upon the bridge, or looks out from his deck-house, thinks much about God and about the world. Away in the valley yonder among the corn and the poppies men may well forget all things except the warmth of the sun upon the face, and the kind shadow under the hedge; but he who journeys through storm and darkness must needs think and think.”

ThinkingMenWorldNeedsWellsLooksKindMayFacesHouseForgetDarknessSunJourneySeaShadowAll ThingsStormBridgesWarmthValleysCaptainsSailingCornDeckPoppiesSailing And The SeaWarmth Of The Sun
Book:The Celtic Twilight
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“A daughter of a King of Ireland, heard A voice singing on a May Eve like this, And followed half awake and half asleep, Until she came into the Land of Faery, Where nobody gets old and godly and grave, Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise, Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue. And she is still there, busied with a dance Deep in the dewy shadow of a wood, Or where stars walk upon a mountain-top.”

MayStillsStarsVoiceWalksHalfWiseHeardLandKingsMountainSingingDaughterShadowWoodsTongueGravesBitterAwakeIrelandGodlyCraftyMountain TopVoice Singing
Book:The Land of Heart's Desire
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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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“Mysticism has been in the past and probably ever will be one of the great powers of the world, and it is bad scholarship to pretend the contrary. You may argue against it but you should no more treat it with disrespect than a perfectly cultivated writer would treat (say) the Catholic Church or the Church of Luther no matter how much he disliked them.”

WorldShouldMayHas BeensMatterPastChurchTreatsCatholicArguingContraryMysticismLutherScholarshipCatholic ChurchDisrespectGreat Power
Author:William Butler Yeats
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