Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Choice

The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
When all that story's finished, what's the news?
In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse. 

1. Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation
2. These Are the Clouds
3. Against Unworthy Praise
4. The Mask
5. Solomon to Sheba

Katharine Tynan The Choice ("When skies are blue and days are bright")

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