That is no country for old men. The you… In one another’s arms, birds in the tree… —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon—falls, the mackerel—crowded s… Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer…
What shall I do with this absurdity— O heart, O troubled heart—this caricatu… Decrepit age that has been tied to me As to a dog’s tail? Never had I more
Surely among a rich man s flowering lawn… Amid the rustle of his planted hills, Life overflows without ambitious pains; And rains down life until the basin spil… And mounts more dizzy high the more it r…
Many ingenious lovely things are gone That seemed sheer miracle to the multitu… protected from the circle of the moon That pitches common things about. Ther… Amid the ornamental bronze and stone
Through winter-time we call on spring, And through the spring on summer call, And when abounding hedges ring Declare that winter’s best of all; And after that there’s nothing good
Much did I rage when young, Being by the world oppressed, But now with flattering tongue It speeds the parting guest.
If you, that have grown old, were the fi… Neither catalpa tree nor scented lime Should hear my living feet, nor would I… Where we wrought that shall break the te… Let the new faces play what tricks they…
Bid a strong ghost stand at the head That my Michael may sleep sound, Nor cry, nor turn in the bed Till his morning meal come round; And may departing twilight keep
I saw a staring virgin stand Where holy Dionysus died, And tear the heart out of his side. And lay the heart upon her hand And bear that beating heart away;
The true faith discovered was When painted panel, statuary. Glass-mosaic, window-glass, Amended what was told awry By some peasant gospeller;
A sudden blow: the great wings beating s… Above the staggering girl, her thighs ca… By the dark webs, her nape caught in his… He holds her helpless breast upon his br… How can those terrified vague fingers pu…
Your hooves have stamped at the black ma… Even where horrible green parrots call a… My works are all stamped down into the s… I knew that horse-play, knew it for a mu… What wholesome sun has ripened is wholes…
I walk through the long schoolroom quest… A kind old nun in a white hood replies; The children learn to cipher and to sing… To study reading-books and histories, To cut and sew, be neat in everything
Come praise Colonus’ horses, and come p… The wine-dark of the wood’s intricacies, The nightingale that deafens daylight th… If daylight ever visit where, Unvisited by tempest or by sun,
I rage at my own image in the glass, That’s so unlike myself that when you pr… It is as though you praised another, or… Mocked me with praise of my mere opposit… And when I wake towards morn I dread my…
A strange thing surely that my heart whe… Upon the Norman upland or in that popla… Should find no burden but itself and yet… It could not bear that burden and theref… The south wind brought it longing, and t…
Though nurtured like the sailing moon In beauty’s murderous brood, She walked awhile and blushed awhile And on my pathway stood Until I thought her body bore
Like the moon her kindness is, If kindness I may call What has no comprehension in’t, But is the same for all As though my sorrow were a scene
A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness
I have pointed out the yelling pack, The hare leap to the wood, And when I pass a compliment Rejoice as lover should At the drooping of an eye,
A crazy man that found a cup, When all but dead of thirst, Hardly dared to wet his mouth Imagining, moon-accursed, That another mouthful
We should be hidden from their eyes, Being but holy shows And bodies broken like a thorn Whereon the bleak north blows, To think of buried Hector
Laughter not time destroyed my voice And put that crack in it, And when the moon’s pot-bellied I get a laughing fit, For that old Madge comes down the lane,
We sat under an old thorn-tree And talked away the night, Told all that had been said or done Since first we saw the light, And when we talked of growing up
I have old women’s secrets now That had those of the young; Madge tells me what I dared not think When my blood was strong, And what had drowned a lover once
O bid me mount and sail up there Amid the cloudy wrack, For peg and Meg and Paris’ love That had so straight a back, Are gone away, and some that stay
They hold their public meetings where Our most renowned patriots stand, One among the birds of the air, A stumpier on either hand; And all the popular statesmen say
Endure what life God gives and ask no l… Cease to remember the delights of youth,… Delight becomes death-longing if all lon… Even from that delight memory treasures… Death, despair, division of families, al…
Kusta Ben Luka is my name, I write To Abd Al-Rabban; fellow-roysterer onc… Now the good Caliph’s learned Treasurer… And for no ear but his. Carry this letter
Epilogue to 'A Vision’ Midnight has come, and the great Christ… And may a lesser bell sound through the… And it is All Souls’ Night, And two long glasses brimmed with muscat…
