Friday, October 27, 2023
Question
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), "The Tower," lines 97-100:
Newer› ‹Older
Did all old men and women, rich and poor,Id., lines 156-164:
Who trod upon these rocks or passed this door,
Whether in public or in secret rage
As I do now against old age?
I have prepared my peaceId., lines 180-194:
With learned Italian things
And the proud stones of Greece,
Poet’s imaginings
And memories of love,
Memories of the words of women,
All those things whereof
Man makes a superhuman
Mirror-resembling dream.
Now shall I make my soul,Thoor Ballylee (photograph by my friend Eric Thomson):
Compelling it to study
In a learned school
Till the wreck of body,
Slow decay of blood,
Testy delirium
Or dull decrepitude,
Or what worse evil come—
The death of friends, or death
Of every brilliant eye
That made a catch in the breath—
Seem but the clouds of the sky
When the horizon fades;
Or a bird’s sleepy cry
Among the deepening shades.
