O but there is wisdom In what the sages said; But stretch that body for a while And lay down that head Till I have told the sages Where man is comforted. How could passion run so deep Had I never thought That the crime of being born Blackens all our lot? But where the crime's committed The crime can be forgot.
A Woman Young and Old
Song Cycle by James Walter Wilson (b. 1922)
?. O but there is wisdom  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Consolation", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]?. I admit the briar  [sung text not yet checked]
I admit the briar Entangled in my hair Did not injure me; My blenching and trembling, Nothing but dissembling, Nothing but coquetry. I long for truth, and yet I cannot stay from that My better self disowns, For a man's attention Brings such satisfaction To the craving in my bones. Brightness that I pull back From the Zodiac, Why those questioning eyes That are fixed upon me? What can they do but shun me If empty night replies?
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "A first confession", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]?. The lot of love is chosen  [sung text not yet checked]
The lot of love is chosen. I learnt that much Struggling for an image on the track Of the whirling Zodiac. Scarce did he my body touch, Scarce sank he from the west Or found a subtetranean rest On the maternal midnight of my breast Before I had marked him on his northern way, And seemed to stand although in bed I lay. I struggled with the horror of daybreak, I chose it for my lot! If questioned on My utmost pleasure with a man By some new-married bride, I take That stillness for a theme Where his heart my heart did seem And both adrift on the miraculous stream Where -- wrote a learned astrologer -- The Zodiac is changed into a sphere.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The choice", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]?. Dry timber under that rich foliage  [sung text not yet checked]
Dry timber under that rich foliage, At wine-dark midnight in the sacred wood, Too old for a man's love I stood in rage Imagining men. Imagining that I could A greater with a lesser pang assuage Or but to find if withered vein ran blood, I tore my body that its wine might cover Whatever could rccall the lip of lover. And after that I held my fingers up, Stared at the wine-dark nail, or dark that ran Down every withered finger from the top; But the dark changed to red, and torches shone, And deafening music shook the leaves; a troop Shouldered a litter with a wounded man, Or smote upon the string and to the sound Sang of the beast that gave the fatal wound. All stately women moving to a song With loosened hair or foreheads grief-distraught, It seemed a Quattrocento painter's throng, A thoughtless image of Mantegna's thought -- Why should they think that are for ever young? Till suddenly in grief's contagion caught, I stared upon his blood-bedabbled breast And sang my malediction with the rest. That thing all blood and mire, that beast-torn wreck, Half turned and fixed a glazing eye on mine, And, though love's bitter-sweet had all come back, Those bodies from a picture or a coin Nor saw my body fall nor heard it shriek, Nor knew, drunken with singing as with wine, That they had brought no fabulous symbol there But my heart's victim and its torturer.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Her vision in the wood", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
Go to the single-text view
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]?. If I made the lashes dark  [sung text not yet checked]
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.
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
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
?. I did the dragon's will until you came  [sung text not yet checked]
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.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Her triumph", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]?. What lively lad most pleasured me  [sung text not yet checked]
What lively lad most pleasured me Of all that with me lay? I answer that I gave my soul And loved in misery, But had great pleasure with a lad That I loved bodily. Flinging from his arms I laughed To think his passion such He fancied that I gave a soul Did but our bodies touch, And laughed upon his breast to think Beast gave beast as much. I gave what other women gave That stepped out of their clothes. But when this soul, its body off, Naked to naked goes, He it has found shall find therein What none other knows, And give his own and take his own And rule in his own right; And though it loved in misery Close and cling so tight, There's not a bird of day that dare Extinguish that delight.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "A last confession", appears in The Winding Stair, in A Woman Young and Old, first published 1929
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]