Dance there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?

Note: also sometimes titled "To a Child dancing upon the shore"
First published in Poetry, Chicago (December 1912), revised 1913

Composition:

Set to music by Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "To a Child Dancing in the Wind", copyright © 1987 [ soprano and string quartet ], from To a Child, no. 2, confirmed with an online score

Text Authorship:

• by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "To a child dancing in the wind"

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-18
Line count: 12
Word count: 66