“A drove of cattle came into a village called Swords;and was stopped by the rioters.”–Daily Paper. In the place called Swords on the Irish roadIt is told for a new renownHow we held the horns of the cattle, and howWe will hold the horns of the devils nowEre the lord of hell with the horn […]

We watched you building, stone by stone,The well-washed cells and well-washed gravesWe shall inhabit but not ownWhen Britons ever shall be slaves;The water’s waiting in the trough,The tame oats sown are portioned free,There is Enough, and just Enough,And all is ready now but we. But you have not caught us yet, my lords,You have us […]

A DEDICATION TO E.C.B. He was, through boyhood’s storm and shower,My best, my nearest friend;We wore one hat, smoked one cigar,One standing at each end. We were two hearts with single hope,Two faces in one hood;I knew the secrets of his youth;I watched his every mood. The little things that none but ISaw were beyond […]

To teach the grey earth like a child,To bid the heavens repent,I only ask from Fate the giftOf one man well content. Him will I find: though when in vainI search the feast and mart,The fading flowers of liberty,The painted masks of art. I only find him at the last,On one old hill where nodGolgotha’s […]

My Lady clad herself in grey,That caught and clung about her throat;Then all the long grey winter dayOn me a living splendour smote;And why grey palmers holy are,And why grey minsters great in story,And grey skies ring the morning star,And grey hairs are a crown of glory. My Lady clad herself in green,Like meadows where […]

Chattering finch and water-flyAre not merrier than I;Here among the flowers I lieLaughing everlastingly.No: I may not tell the best;Surely, friends, I might have guessedDeath was but the good King’s jest,It was hid so carefully.

My eyes are full of lonely mirth:Reeling with want and worn with scars,For pride of every stone on earth,I shake my spear at all the stars. A live bat beats my crest above,Lean foxes nose where I have trod,And on my naked face the loveWhich is the loneliness of God. Outlawed: since that great day […]

If trees were tall and grasses short,As in some crazy tale,If here and there a sea were blueBeyond the breaking pale, If a fixed fire hung in the airTo warm me one day through,If deep green hair grew on great hills,I know what I should do. In dark I lie: dreaming that thereAre great eyes […]

The still sweet meadows shimmered: and I stoodAnd cursed them, bloom of hedge and bird of tree,And bright and high beyond the hunch-backed woodThe thunder and the splendour of the sea. Give back the Babylon where I was born,The lips that gape give back, the hands that grope,And noise and blood and suffocating scornAn eddy […]

Through what fierce incarnations, furledIn fire and darkness, did I go,Ere I was worthy in the worldTo see a dandelion grow? Well, if in any woes or warsI bought my naked right to be,Grew worthy of the grass, nor gaveThe wren, my brother, shame for me. But what shall God not ask of himIn the […]

The vision of a haloed hostThat weep around an empty throne;And, aureoles dark and angels dead,Man with his own life stands alone. ‘I am,’ he says his bankrupt creed:‘I am,’ and is again a clod:The sparrow starts, the grasses stir,For he has said the name of God.

Why should I care for the AgesBecause they are old and grey?To me, like sudden laughter,The stars are fresh and gay;The world is a daring fancy,And finished yesterday. Why should I bow to the AgesBecause they were drear and dry?Slow trees and ripening meadowsFor me go roaring by,A living charge, a struggleTo escalade the sky. […]

That night the whole world mingled,The souls were babes at play,And angel danced with devil.And God cried, ‘Holiday!’ The sea had climbed the mountain peaks,And shouted to the starsTo come to play: and down they cameSplashing in happy wars. The pine grew apples for a whim,The cart-horse built a nest;The oxen flew, the flowers sang,The […]

I had grown weary of him; of his breathAnd hands and features I was sick to death.Each day I heard the same dull voice and tread;I did not hate him: but I wished him dead.And he must with his blank face fill my life–Then my brain blackened; and I snatched a knife. But ere I […]

Lo! I am come to autumn,When all the leaves are gold;Grey hairs and golden leaves cry outThe year and I are old. In youth I sought the prince of men,Captain in cosmic wars,Our Titan, even the weeds would showDefiant, to the stars. But now a great thing in the streetSeems any human nod,Where shift in […]

Dark the sea was: but I saw him,One great head with goggle eyes,Like a diabolic cherubFlying in those fallen skies. I have heard the hoarse deniers,I have known the wordy wars;I have seen a man, by shouting,Seek to orphan all the stars. I have seen a fool half-fashionedBorrow from the heavens a tongue,So to curse […]

The World is ours till sunset,Holly and fire and snow;And the name of our dead brotherWho loved us long ago. The grown folk mighty and cunning,They write his name in gold;But we can tell a littleOf the million tales he told. He taught them laws and watchwords,To preach and struggle and pray;But he taught us […]

There is one sin: to call a green leaf grey,Whereat the sun in heaven shuddereth.There is one blasphemy: for death to pray,For God alone knoweth the praise of death. There is one creed: ‘neath no world-terror’s wingApples forget to grow on apple-trees.There is one thing is needful–everything–The rest is vanity of vanities.

I Cut a staff in a churchyard copse,I clad myself in ragged things,I set a feather in my capThat fell out of an angel’s wings. I filled my wallet with white stones,I took three foxgloves in my hand,I slung my shoes across my back,And so I went to fairyland. But Lo, within that ancient placeScience […]

If the stars fell; night’s nameless dreamsOf bliss and blasphemy came true,If skies were green and snow were gold,And you loved me as I love you; O long light hands and curled brown hair,And eyes where sits a naked soul;Dare I even then draw near and burnMy fingers in the aureole? Yes, in the one […]