Friday, February 08, 2008

A Drinking Song by William Butler Yeats

Since Valentine's Day is coming up this week, here's a love poem by William Butler Yeats.

Yeats spent much of his life pining (unrequited) for a woman named Maud Gonne. He wrote a lot of poems about her, proposed to her four times, and got to be very, very good at pining:


A Drinking Song

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.



William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1865. He is remembered as an important cultural leader, a major playwright (he was one of the founders of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin), and as one of the very greatest poets—in any language—of the century. W. B. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 and died in 1939 at the age of 73.

7 Comments:

Blogger gsmith said...

reminds me of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" the line about beauty and truth.

thank you, i have enjoyed all the poems your post.

in this graceless age poetry may be the only meaningful expression we have left

3:41 PM  
Blogger calleigh-小咪 said...

bitter & heart-wrenching is unrequitted love, yet we just can't help loving someone

8:34 AM  
Blogger Scott De Buitléir said...

WB Yeats is certainly one of my favourite English-language poets; my favourite poem of his is "September 1913" - and I recite it off my heart!

12:06 PM  
Blogger sagar sharma vedula said...

nice one man.....
i wish i didnt live in a dry state ( where alcohol is prohibited)

2:56 AM  
Blogger sagar sharma vedula said...

"it happened with me...
but why...???"

3:00 AM  
Blogger ~*me_newfie_gurl*~ said...

Gotta love the poem haha! It was sensible and surreal! Awesome!

9:16 AM  
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