Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A WOMAN YOUNG AND OLD: 4. HER TRIUMPH, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WOMAN YOUNG AND OLD: 4. HER TRIUMPH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I did the dragon's will until you came
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Love; Mythology


I DID the dragon's will until you came
Because I had fancied love a casual
Improvisation, or a settled game
That followed if I let the kerchief fall:
Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings
And heavenly music if they gave it wit;
And then you stood among the dragon-rings.
I mocked, being crazy, but you mastered it
And broke the chain and set my ankles free,
Saint George or else a pagan Perseus;
And now we stare astonished at the sea,
And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us.





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