O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes
The poets labouring all their days
To build a perfect beauty in rhyme
Are overthrown by a woman's gaze
And by the unlabouring brood of the skies:
And therefore my heart will bow, when dew
Is dropping sleep, until God burn time,
Before the unlabouring stars and you.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 31.

First published in Senate, May 1896, as part of "O'Sullivan the Red to Mary Lavell", revised 1899, revised 1906

Text Authorship:

• by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "Aedh tells of the perfect Beauty", title 2: "He tells of the Perfect Beauty", appears in The Wind among the reeds [author's text checked 2 times 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 Paul Schwartz (1907 - 1999), "He tells of the perfect beauty", 1945 [ voice and piano ], from A Poet to His Beloved [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-17
Line count: 8
Word count: 53