William Butler Quotes
All men live in suffering I know as few can know, Whether they take the upper road Or stay content on the low.
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings.
Hearts with one purpose alone/Through summer and winter seem/Enchanted to a stone/To trouble the living stream.
I broke my heart in two So hard I struck. What matter? for I know That out of rock, Out of a desolate source, Love leaps upon its course.
All that could run or leap or swim Whether in wood, water or cloud, Acclaiming, proclaiming, declaiming Him.
Time drops in decay Like a candle burnt out. And the mountains and woods Have their day, have their day; But, kindly old rout Of the fire-born moods, You pass not away.
Let us go forth, the tellers of tales, and seize whatever prey the heart long for, and have no fear. Everything exists, everything is true, and the earth is only a little dust under our feet.
Many times man lives and dies Betweeen his two eternities, That of race and that of soul, And ancient Ireland knew it all. Whether man die in his bed Or the rifle knocks him dead
He Who is wrapped in purple robes, With planets in His care, Had pity on the least of things Asleep upon a chair.
And God stands winding His lonely horn, And time and the world are ever in flight.
Shakespearean fish swam the sea, far away from land; Romantic fish swam in nets coming to the hand.
I agree about Shaw - he is haunted by the mystery he flouts. He is an atheist who trembles in the haunted corridor.
I have mummy truths to tell Whereat the living mock, Though not for sober ear, For maybe all that hear Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.
A living man is blind and drinks his drop. What matter if the ditches are impure? What matter if I live it all once more?
Nor bird nor beast Could make me wish for anything this day, Being old, but that the old alone might die, And that would be against God's Providence.
I know of the leafy paths that the witches take Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool, And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake.
The friends that have it I do wrong Whenever I remake a song, Should know what issue is at stake: It is myself that I remake.
Being young you have not known The fool's triumph, nor yet Love lost as soon as won, Nor the best labourer dead And all the sheaves to bind.
O sweet everlasting Voices, be still; Go to the guards of the heavenly fold And bid them wander obeying your will, Flame under flame, till Time be no more.
I long for truth, and yet I cannot stay from that My better self disowns, For a man's attention Brings such satisfaction To the craving in my bones.
Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire, With your harmonious choir Encircle her I love and sing her into peace, That my old care may cease.
When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, suddenly I meet your face.
I have nothing more to give you than my heart. Spanish saying Hearts are not to be had as a gift hearts are to be earned.
Somewhere beyond the curtain Of distorting days Lives that lonely thing That shone before these eyes Targeted, trod like Spring.
It's certain there are trout somewhere - And maybe I shall take a trout - but I do not seem to care.
O heart, we are old; The living beauty is for younger men: We cannot pay its tribute of wild tears.
Lionel Johnson comes the first to mind, That loved his learning better than mankind, Though courteous to the worst; much falling he Brooded upon sanctity.
Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns? I have been changed to a hound with one red ear; I have been in the Path of Stones and the Wood of Thorns.
We had fed the heart on fantasies, The heart's grown brutal from the fare, More substance in our enmities Than in our love
For men were born to pray and save: Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave.
If there's no hatred in a mind Assault and battery of the wind Can never tear the linnet from the leaf
