Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from a… - William Butler Yeats

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Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

William Butler Yeats

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About William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish symbolist poet, dramatist and mystic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. He compiled the Oxford Book of Modern Verse.

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Also Known As

Alternative Names: W. B. Yeats • William Yeats • W.B. Yeats • WBY

All quotes from William Butler Yeats Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like William Butler Yeats:

Lord Byron Alfred Tennyson John Keats Samuel Taylor Coleridge Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Additional quotes by William Butler Yeats

Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,
Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.

The Wheel

Through winter-time we call on spring,
And through the spring on summer call,
And when abounding hedges ring
Declare that winter's best of all;
And after that there's nothing good
Because the spring-time has not come — Nor know what disturbs our blood
Is but its longing for the tomb.

Mock mockers after that
That would not lift a hand maybe
To help good, wise or great
To bar that foul storm out, for we
Traffic in mockery.

Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold ena… - William Butler Yeats

About William Butler Yeats

Also Known As

Additional quotes by William Butler Yeats