by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
Men improve with the years
Language: English
Our translations: FRE
I am worn out with dreams; A weather-worn, marble triton Among the streams; And all day long I look Upon this lady's beauty As though I had found in book A pictured beauty, Pleased to have filled the eyes Or the discerning ears, Delighted to be but wise, For men improve with the years; And yet and yet Is this my dream, or the truth? O would that we had met When I had my burning youth; But I grow old among dreams, A weather-worn, marble triton Among the streams.
Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 246.
First published in Little Review, June 1917Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Men improve with the years", appears in The Wild Swans at Coole [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 Lowell Dykstra (b. 1952), "Men improve with the years", 1998, published 2001, first performed 2000 [ baritone and piano ], from Youth and Age, no. 8, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Raymond Warren (b. 1928), "Men improve with the years", published 1971 [ baritone and piano ], from Songs of Old Age [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Les hommes s'améliorent avec l'âge", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-20
Line count: 18
Word count: 90