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by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

Three things
Language: English 
"O cruel Death, give three things back,"
Sang a bone upon the shore;
"A child found all a child can lack,
Whether of pleasure or of rest,
Upon the abundance of my breast":
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.

"Three dear things that women know,"
Sang a bone upon the shore;
"A man if I but held him so
When my body was alive
Found all the pleasure that life gave":
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.

"The third thing that I think of yet,"
Sang a bone upon the shore,
"Is that morning when I met
Face to face my rightful man
And did after stretch and yawn":
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.

First published in New Republic, October 1929

Text Authorship:

  • by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Three things" [author's text checked 1 time 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 Douglas Young (b. 1947), "Three things", 1970-3 [soprano, tenor, flute, bass clarinet, viola, violoncello, harpsichord, and percussion], from Realities [
     text not verified 
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-20
Line count: 18
Word count: 121

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