William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)

Poetry on Peace

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939):

The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1893)
Peace (1916)


Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com



THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

from The Rose (1893)

****************************************

PEACE

Ah, that Time could touch a form
That could show what Homer's age
Bred to be a hero's wage.
'Were not all her life but storm
Would not painters paint a form
Of such noble lines,' I said,
'Such a delicate high head,
All that sternness amid charm,
All that sweetness amid strength?'
Ah, but peace that comes at length,
Came when Time had touched her form.

from Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916)

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939),
Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
2nd Revised Edition, Scribner, NY, 1996



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P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039
email: peter@wisdomportal.com (3-12-2003)