A Group of Poems by William Butler Yeats

May 1920 Augustus John

A Group of Poems by William Butler Yeats AUGUSTUS JOHN May 1920

May 1920 Augustus John

A Group of Poems by William Butler Yeats

A Selection from the Work of the First Poet of the Irish Renaissance

AUGUSTUS JOHN

DOWN BY THE SALLEY GARDENS

DOWN by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;

She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;

But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty, with love false or true;

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

AN IRISH AIRMAN FORESEES HIS DEATH

I KNOW that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not love.

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public man, nor angry crowds;

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

HE THINKS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SPOKEN EVIL OF HIS BELOVED

HALF close your eyelids, loosen your hair,

And dream about the great and their pride;

They have spoken against you everywhere,

But weigh this song with the great and their pride;

I made it out of a mouthful of air,

Their children's children shall say they have lied.

THE LOVER TELLS OF THE ROSE IN HIS HEART

ALL things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,

The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,

The heavy step of a ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,

Are wronging your image that blossoms, a rose in the deeps of my heart.

The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;

I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart,

With the earth and the sky and the water, remade, like a casket of gold,

For my dreams of your image that blossoms, a rose in the deeps of my heart.

HE WISHES FOR THE CLOTHS OF HEAVEN

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with gold and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet.

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

(The two following poems, as well as An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, are from Mr. Yeats's later books. The Coming of Wisdom with Time describes the quality of this later work [beginning with the volume drily and prosaically entitled "Responsibilities"], which is not, however, altogether without "leaves and flowers" of its own, as may be seen from "The Wild Swans at Coole", one of the most beautiful of all his lyrics).

THE COMING OF WISDOM WITH TIME

THOUGH leaves are many, the root is one.

Through all the lying days of my youth,

I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;

Now I may wither into the truth.

THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE

THE trees are in their autumn beauty,

The woodland paths are dry,

Under the October twilight the water

Mirrors a still sky;

Upon the brimming water among the stones

Are nine and fifty swans.