Nature
The Dawn
From The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
Nature
I would be ignorant as the dawn
That has looked down
On that old queen measuring a town
With the pin of a brooch,
Or on the withered men that saw
From their pedantic Babylon
The careless planets in their courses,
The stars fade out where the moon comes,
And took their tablets and did sums;
I would be ignorant as the dawn
That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach
Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses;
I would be--for no knowledge is worth a straw--
Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.
Cite this poem
MLA
Yeats, W. B. “The Dawn.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/155/.
Chicago
Yeats, W. B. “The Dawn.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/155/.
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