Quote

A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him up for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown.

William Butler Yeats

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William Butler Yeats
Age: 73 †
Born: 1865
Born: June 13
Died: 1939
Died: January 28
Astrologer
Mystic
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Scrooby
Nottinghamshire
W. B. Yeats
William Yeats
W.B. Yeats
Laughed
Mermaid
Lovers
Lad
Happiness
Pressed
Found
Drown
Body
Forgot
Even
Picked
Swimming
Cruel
Plunging

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Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
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Bodily decrepitude is wisdom young We loved each other and were ignorant.
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Give to these children, new from the world, Rest far from men. Is anything better, anything better? Tell us it then.
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I believe... that our memories are part of one great memory, the memory of Nature herself.
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Words alone are certain good.
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He Who is wrapped in purple robes, With planets in His care, Had pity on the least of things Asleep upon a chair.
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Cats are oppressed, dogs terrify them, landladies starve them, boys stone them, everybody speaks of them with contempt. If they were human beings we could talk of their oppressors with a studied violence, add our strength to theirs, even organize the oppressed and like good politicians sell our charity for power.
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I--though heart might find relief Did I become a Christian man and choose for my belief What seems most welcome in the tomb--play a predestined part. Homer is my example and his unchristened heart.
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How but in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born?
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Fairies in Ireland are sometimes as big as we are, sometimes bigger, and sometimes, as I have been told, about three feet high.
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I thought it out this very day, Noon upon the clock, A man may put pretence away Who leans upon a stick, May sing, and sing until he drop, Whether to maid or hag.
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On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut: Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by!
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True love is a discipline in which each divines the secret self of the other and refuses to believe in the mere daily self.
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What were all the world's alarms To mighty Paris when he found Sleep upon a golden bed That first dawn in Helen's arms?
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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.
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The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.
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The falcon cannot hear the falconer
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Come near, that no more blinded by man's fate, I find under the boughs of love and hate, In all poor foolish things that live a day, Eternal beauty wandering on her way.
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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?
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I know, although when looks meet I tremble to the bone, The more I leave the door unlatched The sooner love is gone.
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