Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHEN HELEN LIVED, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHEN HELEN LIVED, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: We have cried in our despair / that men desert
Last Line: A word and a jest.
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Helen Of Troy; Mythology - Classical


We have cried out in our despair
That men desert,
For some trivial affair
Or noisy, insolent sport,
Beauty that we have won
From bitterest hours;
Yet we, had we walked within
Those topless towers
Where Helen walked with her boy,
Had given but as the rest
Of the men and women of Troy,
A word and a jest.





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