The Tower: watercolour book cover

A collection of poems

The Tower

192830 poems29 in full here

Macmillan, London, 14 February 1928; Macmillan, New York, May 1928. Cover design by T. Sturge Moore.

  1. 1Sailing to ByzantiumThat is no country for old men. The youngAn old man leaves the world of the body for the eternity of art.
  2. 2The TowerWhat shall I do with this absurdityAn old poet rages at age, calls up ghosts, and writes his will.
  3. 3Meditations in Time of Civil WarSurely among a rich man's flowering lawns,At his tower during the Civil War, Yeats weighs violence, inheritance and hope.
  4. 4Nineteen Hundred and NineteenMany ingenious lovely things are goneViolence returns to Ireland, and the hope of a civilised world dies.
  5. 5The WheelThrough winter-time we call on spring,Always longing for the next season, we are really longing for death.
  6. 6Youth and AgeMuch did I rage when young,The world that once oppressed him now flatters him on his way out.
  7. 7The New FacesIf you, that have grown old, were the first dead,An ageing poet tells an old friend their shared place stays theirs.
  8. 8A Prayer for my SonBid a strong ghost stand at the headA father prays for a guardian ghost to protect his infant son.
  9. 9Two Songs from a PlayThese songs are sung by the Chorus in a play that has for its themeA pagan god dies, Christ is born, and history turns on its wheel.
  10. 10FragmentsLocke sank into a swoon;Two riddling fragments on modern reason and where true wisdom comes from.
  11. 11Leda and the SwanA sudden blow: the great wings beating stillZeus, as a swan, rapes Leda, and a whole age of war begins.
  12. 12On a Picture of a Black Centaur by Edmund DulacYour hooves have stamped at the black margin of the wood,A poet speaks to a painted centaur about his wasted and ripened work.
  13. 13Among School ChildrenI walk through the long schoolroom questioning,An ageing senator visits a school and reflects on youth, age and meaning.
  14. 14Colonus' PraiseCome praise Colonus' horses and come praiseA Greek chorus sings the praises of Colonus, its olives and horses.
  15. 15WisdomThe true faith discovered wasReligious art dresses up the carpenter's son as the child of kings.
  16. 16The Hero, the Girl, and the FoolWhen all works that haveA girl, a hero and a fool ask who can love us for ourselves.
  17. 17Owen Aherne and his DancersA strange thing surely that my heart when love had come unsoughtA middle-aged man argues with his own heart over a lost young love.
  18. 18First LoveThough nurtured like the sailing moonA young man loves a moon-like beauty and finds her heart is stone.
  19. 19Human DignityLike the moon her kindness is,A rejected lover lies silent, too proud to cry out his pain.
  20. 20The MermaidA mermaid found a swimming lad,A mermaid's joyful embrace drowns the young man she loves.
  21. 21The Death of the HareI have pointed out the yelling pack,A lover sees in his tamed beloved a hare brought down by hounds.
  22. 22The Empty CupA crazy man that found a cup,A man finds the cup of love too late, and it is dry.
  23. 23His MemoriesWe should be hidden from their eyes,An old man, mocked by women now, remembers lying with Helen.
  24. 24The Friends of his YouthLaughter not time destroyed my voiceAn old man laughs and weeps at two friends gone mad with age.
  25. 25Summer and SpringWe sat under an old thorn-treeTwo lovers find they halved a soul, but a rival had her spring.
  26. 26The Secrets of the OldI have old women's secrets nowThree old people share love stories no one else alive remembers.
  27. 27His WildnessO bid me mount and sail up thereAn old man longs to fly off and grieve alone among the clouds.
  28. 28From 'Oedipus at Colonus'Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span;A bleak chorus of old age: better never to have been born.
  29. 29The Three MonumentsThey hold their public meetings whereThree statues of flawed heroes laugh at politicians preaching purity.
  30. 30All Souls' NightMidnight has come and the great Christ Church Bell,At midnight in Oxford, Yeats calls up three dead friends to hear his thought.