William Butler Yeats Poetry Quotations

Of conflicts with others we make retorica, of conflicts with ourselves poetry

The true poet is all the time a visionary and whether with friends or not, as much alone as a man on his death bed.

What can be explained is not poetry.

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.

One had a lovely face, And two or three had charm, But charm and face were in vain. Because the mountain grass Cannot keep the form Where the mountain hare has lain.

I thought of rhyme alone, For rhyme can beat a measure out of trouble And make the daylight sweet once more....

I have heard that hysterical women say They are sick of the palette and fiddle-bow, Of poets that are always gay

All things can tempt me from this craft of verse: One time it was a woman's face, or worse-- The seeming needs of my fool-driven land; Now nothing but comes readier to the hand Than this accustomed toil.

O heart, be at peace, because Nor knave nor dolt can break What's not for their applause, Being for a woman's sake.

If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.

Out of our quarrels with others we make rhetoric. Out of our quarrels with ourselves we make poetry.