Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Dawn

I WOULD be ignorant as the dawn
That has looked down
On that old queen measuring a town
With the pin of a brooch,
Or on the withered men that saw
From their pedantic Babylon
The careless planets in their courses,
The stars fade out where the moon comes.
And took their tablets and did sums;
I would be ignorant as the dawn
That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach
Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses;
I would be -- for no knowledge is worth a straw --
Ignorant and wanton as the dawn. 

1. Tom at Cruachan
2. Dream of a Blessed Spirit
3. The Song of Wandering Aengus
4. Under Ben Bulben
5. The Cap and Bells

Ada Cambridge (Cross) The Dawn ("All the wild waves rock'd in shadow")

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