Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LIVING BEAUTY, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LIVING BEAUTY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I bade, because the wick and oil are spent
Last Line: We cannot pay its tribute of wild tears.
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Aging; Beauty


I BADE, because the wick and oil are spent
And frozen are the channels of the blood,
My discontented heart to draw content
From beauty that is cast out of a mould
In bronze, or that in dazzling marble appears,
Appears, but when we have gone is gone again,
Being more indifferent to our solitude
Than 'twere an apparition. O heart, we are old;
The living beauty is for younger men:
We cannot pay its tribute of wild tears.





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