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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Young Man’s Song

William Butler Yeats

‘She will change,’ I cried.
‘Into a withered crone.’
The heart in my side,
That so still had lain,
In noble rage replied
And beat upon the bone:

‘Uplift those eyes and throw
Those glances unafraid:
She would as bravely show
Did all the fabric fade;
No withered crone I saw
Before the world was made.’

Abashed by that report,
For the heart cannot lie,
I knelt in the dirt.
And all shall bend the knee
To my offended heart
Until it pardon me.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Winding Stair and Other Poems | 1933
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