[updated for 09/07/05]

A Selection of poems by William Butler Yeats

[Early Yeats]

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 among a crowd of stars.

(1892)

Who Goes With Fergus?

WHO will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood's woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?

Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.

And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love's bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,

And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.

(1892)

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden 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.

(1899)

(Middle period of Yeats)

No Second Troy

WHY should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

(1910)

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.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

(1917)

Leda And The Swan

A SUDDEN blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

(1924)

Sailing To Byzantium

I
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.

II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

III
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

(1927)

Yeats Questions for small group work

1. In "When You Are Old," what kind of a situation is Yeats imagining? What is the feeling (or feelings) that you get from the poem? How does the last stanza turn surprisingly away from what one might usually expect? Is it fair or accurate to say this is a kind of a love poem to someone? Or is it more like a poem about how love works in a larger sense?

2. Fergus was a mythical king who gave up worldly power for the "dreaming wisdom" of poets, and he stands between these different realms. If we are supposed to follow Fergus into the dream's dominion, is it for our own good, or is it for the sake of Fergus? Is Fergus in a kind of conflict that is like other kinds of emotional conflict that might be more familiar or universal?

3. Is "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" a "romantic" poem in any sense? What kind of a situation is the speaker in with respect to the lady in the poem? What kind of mood or tone is created by the word choices (diction) of the poem?

4. In "No Second Troy," first, scan this poem and show what the rhythm and meter are. What kind of a woman is Yeats describing or evoking in this poem? What images are important for understanding her and how he feels about her? Why does he compare this woman to Helen of Troy? How does he resolve the feelings he has for her, or does he resolve how he feels about her?

5. "The Wild Swans at Coole." What kind of mood does Yeats create with his rhythm and meter in this poem? How does the irregular line length help convey this feeling in the first stanza? How old (approximately) is the speaker of the poem, or is there a hint anywhere in or around the poem? What is making the speaker of the poem feel "my heart is sore" (14), and what do the swans represent to him? How does the final stanza resolve the mood of the poem, or does it resolve into one mood or feeling?

6. "Leda and the Swan" (539). How does the imagery portray Zeus, and how do you think Yeats wants us to feel about him? What images create the portrait of Leda, and what do we know about her and/or what happens to her? In lines 9-11 Yeats seems to imply that one sexual act in one moment is connected to the Fall of Troy and more terrible things much later. Do you think there is a moral point Yeats is trying to make? Look at the very last lines of the poem and consider the question Yeats is asking. What is the point of that final question?

7. "Sailing to Byzantium." What does Yeats imagine that a poet would like to do ideally in this poem, that is, if he could have anything in the world? Why in the second stanza does Yeats talk about old age, and why does he want to escape? In the first line of the poem, what country is he talking about? And how is it different from the place he is dreaming of? What does Byzantium symbolize to Yeats? In what ways is Yeats a "Romantic" poet, or what things (themes, ideas, concerns) might he share with poets like Keats, Coleridge, Wordsworth or Blake?

T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" can be found here. Make sure you read the notes at the end of this poem to explain the literary allusions:

http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem781.html

Here are some questions for small group work on this poem:

1. What kind of society does Prufrock live in, and how does he feel about it? What do we learn about the social life of the time? How formal or casual is it? In what ways is it an alienating (or alienated) society?

2. Imagine that this poem is a short film, and then tell us what you actually see in the film from start to end. How much time passes in this film? Where does Prufrock actually go literally and/or imaginatively?

3. Discuss the kinds of irony in this poem (situational irony, dramatic irony, cosmic irony, etc.) Where is the tone the most ironic?

4. Think about some of the patterns of imagery, e.g. fog images and sea images, and discuss what kinds of feelings these images create or evoke... What is the overall feeling that the reader gets from the images?

5. What kind of a persona or character is Prufrock? How do you know what he looks like and acts like? What does he want and what is standing in his way? Is there any hope for him anywhere in this poem?

6. A close friend of Eliot, Ezra Pound, believed that Eliot had modernized poetry all by himself in this poem. What things (devices, themes, contents) make this poem very different from earlier kinds of poetry?

7. Think about all the famous people that are alluded to in this poem. Why are they there, and what do they represent to Prufrock?