Month: 2022 اپریل

I My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair;    Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,    Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,    Upon the breathless starlit air,    Upon the star that marks the hidden pole;    Fix every wandering thought upon    That quarter where all thought is done:    Who can distinguish darkness from the soul? My Self. The consecrated blade upon my knees    Is Sato’s ancient blade, still as it was,    Still razor-keen, still like a looking-glass    Unspotted by the centuries;    That flowering, silken, old embroidery, torn    From some court-lady’s dress and…

I met the Bishop on the road And much said he and I. `Those breasts are flat and fallen now Those veins must soon be dry; Live in a heavenly mansion, Not in some foul sty.’ `Fair and foul are near of kin, And fair needs foul,’ I cried. ‘My friends are gone, but that’s a truth Nor grave nor bed denied, Learned in bodily lowliness And in the heart’s pride. `A woman can be proud and stiff When on love intent; But Love has pitched his mansion in The…

Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice, And thereupon imagination and heart were driven So wild that every casual thought of that and this Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago; And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason, Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro, Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to…

I made my song a coat  Covered with embroideries  Out of old mythologies  From heel to throat;  But the fools caught it,  Wore it in the world’s eyes  As though they’d wrought it.  Song, let them take it For there’s more enterprise  In walking naked.

I I sought a theme and sought for it in vain, I sought it daily for six weeks or so. Maybe at last being but a broken man I must be satisfied with my heart, although Winter and summer till old age began My circus animals were all on show, Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot, Lion and woman and the Lord knows what. II What can I but enumerate old themes, First that sea-rider Oisin led by the nose Through three enchanted islands, allegorical dreams, Vain gaiety, vain battle,…