I did the dragon's will until you came Because I had fancied love a casual Improvisation, or a settled game That followed if I let the kerchief fall: Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings And heavenly music if they gave it wit; And then you stood among the dragon-rings. I mocked, being crazy, but you mastered it And broke the chain and set my ankles free, Saint George or else a pagan Perseus; And now we stare astonished at the sea, And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us.
Yeats Songs
Song Cycle by Owen Underhill (b. 1954)
1. Her triumph [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Her triumph", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. The fool by the roadside [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
When all works that have From cradle run to grave From grave to cradle run instead; When thoughts that a fool Has wound upon a spool Are but loose thread, are but loose thread; When cradle and spool are past And I mere shade at last Coagulate of stuff Transparent like the wind, I think that I may find A faithful love, a faithful love.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The fool by the roadside", appears in Seven Poems and a Fragment, in Cuchulain the Girl and the Fool, first published 1922, revised 1925 a
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Before the world was made [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
If I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror, No vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had Before the world was made. What if I look upon a man As though on my beloved, And my blood be cold the while And my heart unmoved? Why should he think me cruel Or that he is betrayed? I'd have him love the thing that was Before the world was made.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Before the world was made", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
4. A cradle song [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
The angels are [stooping]1, above your bed; They weary of trooping with the whimpering dead. God's laughing in heaven to see you so good; The [Shining]2 Seven are gay with His mood. [I kiss you and kiss you, my pigeon my own. Ah how I shall miss you when you have grown.]3
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "A cradle song", appears in The Rose, first published 1893
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Una ninna nanna", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
First published in Scots Observer, April 1890; revised 1901
1 Grill: "singing"
2 Ebel, Grill: "Sailing"
3 Ebel: "I sigh that kiss you, for I must own/ That I shall miss you when you have grown."; Grill: "I sigh that kiss you, for I must own/ That I shall miss you when you have gone."
Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 301