by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

Language: English 
O sweet everlasting Voices, be still;
Go to the guards of the heavenly fold
And bid them wander obeying your will,
Flame under flame, till Time be no more;
Have you not heard that our hearts are old,
That you call in birds, in wind on the hill,
In shaken boughs, in tide on the shore?
O sweet everlasting Voices, be still.
First published in New Review (January 1896), revised 1899

Composition:

    Set to music by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "The everlasting voices", 1915, published 1976 [ voice and piano ]

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this page: David K. Smythe

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 62