Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HE REMEMBERS FORGOTTEN BEAUTY, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HE REMEMBERS FORGOTTEN BEAUTY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When my arms wrap you round I press
Last Line: Brood her high lonely mysteries.
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Variant Title(s): Michael Robartes Remembers Forgotten Beauty
Subject(s): Love


When my arms wrap you round I press
My heart upon the loveliness
That has long faded from the world;
The jewelled crowns that kings have hurled
In shadowy pools, when armies fled;
The love-tales wove with silken thread
By dreaming ladies upon cloth
That has made fat the murderous moth;
The roses of that old time were
Woven by ladies in their hair,
The dew-cold lilies ladies bore
Through many a sacred corridor
Where such gray clouds of incense rose
That only gods' eyes did not close:
For that pale breast and lingering hand
Come from a more dream-heavy land,
A more dream-heavy hour than this;
And when you sigh from kiss to kiss
I hear white Beauty sighing, too,
For hours when all must fade like dew,
But flame on flame, deep under deep,
Throne over throne, where in half sleep,
Their swords upon their iron knees,
Brood her high lonely mysteries.




Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net