Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

ALTHOUGH I shelter from the rain
Under a broken tree,
My chair was nearest to the fire
In every company
That talked of love or politics,
Ere Time transfigured me.

Though lads are making pikes again
For some conspiracy,
And crazy rascals rage their fill
At human tyranny,
My contemplations are of Time
That has transfigured me.

There's not a woman turns her face
Upon a broken tree,
And yet the beauties that I loved
Are in my memory;
I spit into the face of Time
That has transfigured me. 

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

Print

1626 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version