Two Songs of a Fool
I
A speckled cat and a tame hare
Eat at my hearthstone
And seep there;
And both look up to me alone
For learning and defence
As I look up to Providence.
I start out of my sleep to think
Some day I may forget
Their food and drink;
Or, the house door left unshut,
The hare may run till it's found
The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound.
I bear a burden that might well try
Men that do all by rule,
And what can I
That am a wandering-witted fool
But pray to God that He ease
My great responsibilities?
II
I slept on my three-leged stool by the fire,
The speckled cat slept on my knee;
We never thought to enquire
Where the brown hare might be,
And whether the door were shut.
Who knows how she drank the wind
Stretched up on two legs from the mat,
Before she had settled her mind
To drum with her heel and to leap?
Had I but awakened from sleep
And called her name, she had heard,
It may be, and not have stirred,
That now, it may be, has found
The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound.
William Butler Yeats
D'autres poésies de William Butler Yeats
A Bronze Head
HERE at right of the entrance this bronze head,
Human,...
A Coat
I MADE my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out...
A Cradle Song
THE angels are stooping
Above your bed;
They weary of...
A Crazed Girl
THAT crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry,...
A Deep-Sworn Vow
OTHERS because you did not keep
That deep-sworn vow have...
A Dialogue Of Self And Soul
i{My Soul} I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all...
A Dramatic Poem
The deck of an ancient ship. At the right of the stage is the...
A Dream Of Death
I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place
Near no...
A Drinking Song
WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the...
A Drunken Man's Praise Of Sobriety
COME swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing...
Précédentes poésies
Wandering Singers
WHERE the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet,
Village Song
HONEY, child, honey, child, whither are you going?
Would...
Transcience
Nay, do not grieve tho' life be full of sadness,
Dawn will...
To The God of Pain
UNWILLING priestess in thy cruel fane,
Long hast thou...
To My Fairy Fancies
NAY, no longer I may hold you,
In my spirit's soft...

