6 William Butler Yeats Quotes on Identity

William Butler Yeats quotes on identity

8. 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.

63. While I, that reed-throated whisperer Who comes at need, although not now as once A clear articulation in the air, But inwardly, surmise companions Beyond the fling of the dull ass's hoof -Ben Jonson's phrase-and find when June is come At Kyle-na-no under that ancient roof A sterner conscience and a friendlier home, I can forgive even that wrong of wrongs, Those undreamt accidents that have made me -Seeing that Fame has perished that long while, Being but a part of ancient ceremony- Notorious, till all my priceless things Are but a post the passing dogs defile.

127. Only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.

140. What matter if I live it all once more? Endure that toil of growing up; The ignominy of boyhood; the distress Of boyhood changing into man; The unfinished man and his pain Brought face to face with his own clumsiness; The finished man among his enemies?- How in the name of Heaven can he escape That defiling and disfigured shape The mirror of malicious eyes Casts upon his eyes until at last He thinks that shape must be his shape?

149. I pray-for word is out And prayer comes round again- That I may seem, though I die old, A foolish, passionate man.

171. Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.