Poem by William Butler Yeats

An Acre of Grass

Picture and book remain,
An acre of green grass
For air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
Midnight, an old house
Where nothing stirs but a mouse.

My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bonc,
Can make the truth known.

Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Till I am Timon and Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call;

A mind Michael Angelo knew
That can pierce the clouds,
Or inspired by frenzy
Shake the dead in their shrouds;
Forgotten else by mankind,
An old man's eagle mind. 

1. To a Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine
2. Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation
3. The Collar-Bone of a Hare
4. The Hero, The Girl, and The Fool
5. Owen Ahern and His Dancers

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