Those Images

William Butler Yeats

WHAT if I bade you leave
The cavern of the mind?
There's better exercise
In the sunlight and wind.
I never bade you go
To Moscow or to Rome.
Renounce that drudgery,
Call the Muses home.
Seek those images
That constitute the wild,
The lion and the virgin,
The harlot and the child
Find in middle air
An eagle on the wing,
Recognise the five
That make the Muses sing.

Next 10 Poems

• William Butler Yeats : Three Marching Songs
• William Butler Yeats : Three Movements
• William Butler Yeats : Three Songs To The One Burden
• William Butler Yeats : Three Songs To The Same Tune
• William Butler Yeats : Three Things
• William Butler Yeats : To A Child Dancing In The Wind
• William Butler Yeats : To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing
• William Butler Yeats : To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators Of His And Mine
• William Butler Yeats : To A Shade
• William Butler Yeats : To A Squirrel At Kyle-na No

Previous 10 Poems

• William Butler Yeats : Those Dancing Days Are Gone
• William Butler Yeats : These Are The Clouds
• William Butler Yeats : The Withering Of The Boughs
• William Butler Yeats : The Witch
• William Butler Yeats : The Winding Stair And Other Poems
• William Butler Yeats : The Wild Swans At Coole
• William Butler Yeats : The Wild Old Wicked Man
• William Butler Yeats : The White Birds
• William Butler Yeats : The Wheel
• William Butler Yeats : The Wanderings Of Oisin: Book Iii