W B Yeats - 150th Anniversary

[Fran]

W B Yeats was born on June 13th 1865 - 150 years ago this year and there will be much celebrating.

Are you familiar with the poetry of W B Yeats?
Do you have a favourite Yeats poem?

Personally I love his poetry especially the love poems, not so keen on his later stuff when he went a bit doolally IMHO
Not easy to pick a favourite but Memory & When You are Old are high on my list.

Memory
One had a pretty face,
and two or three had charm,
but charm and face were in vain,
because the mountain grass
cannot but keep the form
where the mountain hare has lain.


When You Are Old

When you are old and grey 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.

[Skillian]

I am actually not as familiar as I would like to be. I loved the poems you posted, and will now probably search for more. Thanks for sharing!

[PG47]

I really love his poetry - almost all of it: favourites that spring to mind are "The Second Coming", "Byzantium", "Leda and the Swan", "Easter 1916"... too many to list!!
His philosophy was absurd. But he was so good a poet that even a poem based on that absurdity ("The Second Coming, for instance) stays in the mind forever.

[DATo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNeq7Dakv_k

Last third of clip ... wait for it.