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. The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water
2. The Rose of Peace
3. The Rose of Battle
4. The Ballad of Father Gilligan
5. The Coming of Wisdom with Time

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

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