The Winding Stair and Other Poems: watercolour book cover

A collection of poems

The Winding Stair and Other Poems

193364 poems16 in full here

Precursors: The Winding Stair (Fountain Press, New York, 1929; 642 copies) and Words for Music Perhaps and Other Poems (Cuala Press, 1932). Full collection: Macmillan, London, September 1933; Macmillan, New York, 1933.

  1. 1In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con MarkiewiczThe light of evening, Lissadell,An elegy for two sisters, remembered young at Lissadell and worn down by time.
  2. 2DeathNor dread nor hope attendA great man facing his murderers scorns death, a human invention.
  3. 3A Dialogue of Self and SoulI summon to the winding ancient stair;The Soul urges escape from life; the Self chooses to live again.
  4. 4Blood and the MoonBlessed be this place,Yeats's tower becomes a symbol of Irish tradition, violence and pure moonlight.
  5. 5Oil and BloodIn tombs of gold and lapis lazuliSaints' bodies give off holy oil; vampires' bodies stay full of blood.
  6. 6Veronica's NapkinThe Heavenly Circuit; Berenice's Hair;The religion of the stars set against the bloodstained image of Christ.
  7. 7SymbolsA storm-beaten old watch-tower,Three emblems: a tower, a sword, and silk wrapped round the blade.
  8. 8Spilt MilkWe that have done and thought,People who have lived by action and thought end by spreading thin.
  9. 9The Nineteenth Century and AfterThough the great song return no moreAfter the great age of poetry, small pleasures still remain.
  10. 10Statistics'Those Platonists are a curse,' he said,A grumbler blames the Platonists for a world reduced to diagrams.
  11. 11Three MovementsShakespearean fish swam the sea, far away from land;Three ages of literature pictured as fish: free, netted, and stranded.
  12. 12The Seven SagesMy great-grandfather spoke to Edmund BurkeSeven old men honour four great Irish minds of the eighteenth century.
  13. 13The Crazed MoonCrazed through much child-bearingAn exhausted moon staggers across the sky, and her children grope.
  14. 14Coole Park, 1929I meditate upon a swallow's flight,Yeats honours Lady Gregory and the great minds who gathered at Coole.
  15. 15Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931Under my window-ledge the waters race,A river links Yeats's tower to Coole as a great house nears its end.
  16. 16For Anne Gregory'Never shall a young man,A young woman and an older poet argue about beauty and true love.
  17. 17Swift's EpitaphSwift has sailed into his rest;Yeats's version of the Latin epitaph Jonathan Swift wrote for himself.
  18. 18At Algeciras - a Meditation upon DeathThe heron-billed pale cattle-birdsBirds cross from Morocco at dusk, and Yeats thinks about facing God.
  19. 19The ChoiceThe intellect of man is forced to chooseAn artist must choose between a perfect life and perfect work.
  20. 20Mohini ChatterjeeI asked if I should pray,An Indian sage's teaching on rebirth, and the old Yeats's commentary.
  21. 21ByzantiumThe unpurged images of day recede;At midnight in Byzantium, restless human spirits are purged into art.
  22. 22The Mother of GodThe three-fold terror of love; a fallen flareMary remembers the terror of the Annunciation and her child.
  23. 23VacillationBetween extremitiesA poet wavers between body and soul, joy and remorse, faith and art.
  24. 24Quarrel in Old AgeWhere had her sweetness gone?After a bitter quarrel, the poet trusts that her youthful self still lives.
  25. 25The Results of ThoughtAcquaintance; companion;An old poet summons back, by thought, the friends that time ruined.
  26. 26Gratitude to the Unknown InstructorsWhat they undertook to doA four-line thanks to unseen teachers for revealing how things hang.
  27. 27Remorse for Intemperate SpeechI ranted to the knave and fool,The poet traces his fanatic heart back to Ireland itself.
  28. 28Stream and Sun at GlendaloughThrough intricate motions ranA sudden gleam at Glendalough frees the poet from brooding self-reproach.
  29. 29Crazy Jane and the BishopBring me to the blasted oakCrazy Jane curses the Bishop who banished her dead lover Jack.
  30. 30Crazy Jane ReprovedI care not what the sailors say:Crazy Jane is warned against loving a roaring, ranting journeyman.
  31. 31Crazy Jane on the Day of Judgment'Love is allCrazy Jane and her lover talk of love that time cannot complete.
  32. 32Crazy Jane and Jack the JourneymanI know, although when looks meetCrazy Jane fears love binds her ghost to Jack's after death.
  33. 33Crazy Jane on GodThat lover of a nightCrazy Jane sets passing lovers and wars against the permanence of God.
  34. 34Crazy Jane talks with the BishopI met the Bishop on the roadCrazy Jane answers a bishop's warning with a defence of body and love.
  35. 35Crazy Jane grown old looks at the DancersI found that ivory image thereOld Crazy Jane watches a dance of love and violence and envies it.
  36. 36Girl's SongI went out aloneA girl thinking of her lover meets an old man and weeps.
  37. 37Young Man's Song'She will change,' I cried,A young man's heart rebukes him for imagining his love grown old.
  38. 38Her AnxietyEarth in beauty dressedA woman fears that all true love must fade, and dares denial.
  39. 39His ConfidenceUndying love to buyA man insists that love springs anew even from a broken heart.
  40. 40Love's LonelinessOld fathers, great-grandfathers,Frightened lovers call on their ancestors for protection under a thin moon.
  41. 41Her DreamI dreamed as in my bed I lay,A woman dreams her sacrificed hair becomes a constellation in the sky.
  42. 42His BargainWho talks of Plato's spindle;A lover's bargain with a woman's hair, made before time began.
  43. 43Three Things'O cruel Death, give three things back,'A woman's bone on the shore asks Death for three joys back.
  44. 44LullabyBeloved, may your sleep be soundA lover sings over a sleeping beloved, recalling Helen, Tristram and Leda.
  45. 45After Long SilenceSpeech after long silence; it is right,Two old lovers talk again and find wisdom in bodily decline.
  46. 46Mad as the Mist and SnowBolt and bar the shutter,Two old friends by the fire find the great classics were mad too.
  47. 47Those Dancing Days are goneCome, let me sing into your ear;An old man sings, careless of age, to a ragged old woman.
  48. 48'I am of Ireland''I am of Ireland,A woman calls a stranger to dance in Ireland; he refuses.
  49. 49The Dancer at Cruachan and Cro-PatrickI, proclaiming that there isA dancer on two holy Irish sites praises the God in all creatures.
  50. 50Tom the LunaticSang old Tom the lunaticMad old Tom's faith: every living thing stands whole in God's eye.
  51. 51Tom at CruachanOn Cruachan's plain slept heMad Tom sings of how Eternity and Time bred the world.
  52. 52Old Tom againThings out of perfection sail,Mad old Tom insists that true things are never born and never die.
  53. 53The Delphic Oracle upon PlotinusBehold that great Plotinus swimThe philosopher Plotinus swims through bitter seas towards the blessed dead.
  54. 54Father and ChildShe hears me strike the board and sayA father condemns his daughter's lover; she answers by praising his hair.
  55. 55Before the World was madeIf I make the lashes darkA woman at her mirror seeks the face she had before creation.
  56. 56A First ConfessionI admit the briarA young woman admits her flirting, and wonders what lies beyond it.
  57. 57Her TriumphI did the dragon's will until you cameA woman is set free from careless love by a heroic lover.
  58. 58ConsolationO but there is wisdomA lover answers the sages' gloom: passion itself brings comfort.
  59. 59ChosenThe lot of love is chosen. I learnt that muchA woman chooses love's pain and remembers a moment of perfect union.
  60. 60PartingDear, I must be goneTwo lovers argue at dawn over whether it is time to part.
  61. 61Her Vision in the WoodDry timber under that rich foliage,An ageing woman's vision of a wounded god becomes her own lost lover.
  62. 62A Last ConfessionWhat lively lad most pleasured meAn old woman weighs bodily pleasure against the love that took her soul.
  63. 63MeetingHidden by old age awhileTwo old former lovers meet, trade insults, and glimpse their buried love.
  64. 64From the 'Antigone'Overcome - O bitter sweetness,A chorus hails all-conquering love, then mourns Antigone going to her death.