Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WOMAN HOMER SUNG by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF ANY MAN DREW NEAR
Last Line: BUT AN HEROIC DREAM.
Subject(s): HOMER (10TH CENTURY B.C.); WOMEN;
IF any man drew near
When I was young,
I thought, 'He holds her dear,'
And shook with hate and fear.
But O! 'twas bitter wrong
If he could pass her by
With an indifferent eye.

Whereon I wrote and wrought,
And now, being grey,
I dream that I have brought
To such a pitch my thought
That coming time can say,
'He shadowed in a glass
What thing her body was.'

For she had fiery blood
When I was young,
And trod so sweetly proud
As 'twere upon a cloud,
A woman Homer sung,
That life and letters seem
But an heroic dream.



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