by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
A speckled cat and a tame hare
Language: English
Available translation(s): FRE
A speckled cat and a tame hare Eat at my hearthstone And sleep there; And both look up to me alone For learning and defence As I look up to Providence. I start out of my sleep to think Some day I may forget Their food [and]drink; Or, the house door left unshut, The hare may run till it's found The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound. I bear a burden that might well try Men that do all by rule, And what can I That am a wandering-witted fool But pray to God that He ease My great responsibilities?
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 313.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), no title, appears in The Wild Swans at Coole, in Two Songs of a Fool, no. 1, first published 1919 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "Two Songs of a Fool I", copyright © 1977 [soprano and piano], from Six Songs, no. 4, confirmed with an online score [ sung text verified 1 time]
This text (or a part of it) is used in a work
- by Gary Bachlund , "Songs of a Fool", 2010. [medium voice and piano]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2011-12-28
Line count: 18
Word count: 104