Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Scholars

BALD heads forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men, tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love's despair
To flatter beauty's ignorant ear.
All shuffle there; all cough in ink;
All wear the carpet with their shoes;
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbour knows.
Lord, what would they say
Did their Catullus walk that way?

1. The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
2. The Indian upon God
3. The Collar-Bone of a Hare
4. In Memory of Major Robert Gregory
5. To a Young Beauty

Print

1642 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version