Time & Brevity
Lines Written in Dejection
From The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
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.
Codex Note
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.
Cite this poem
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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