Time & Brevity

Lines Written in Dejection

by W. B. Yeats 1865–1939

From The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Time & BrevityMythology & Folklore

When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches those most noble ladies,
For all their broom-sticks and their tears,
Their angry tears, are gone.
The holy centaurs of the hills are banished;
And I have nothing but harsh sun;
Heroic mother moon has vanished,
And now that I have come to fifty years
I must endure the timid sun.

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The poet misses the 'wild witches, those most noble ladies' and the unicorns of his youth, and must endure 'the timid sun' now that romance is gone.

MLA

Yeats, W. B. “Lines Written in Dejection.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/44/.

Chicago

Yeats, W. B. “Lines Written in Dejection.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/44/.

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