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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HE THINKS OF HIS PAST GREATNESS WHEN A PART OF ... HEAVEN by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: I HAVE DRUNK ALE FROM THE COUNTRY OF THE YOUNG
Last Line: CRY OF HIS LOVE WITH THEIR PITIFUL CRIES.
Subject(s): DEATH; HEAVEN; MEMORY;

I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young
And weep because I know all things now:
I have been a hazel tree, and they hung
The Pilot Star and the Crooked Plough
Among my leaves in times out of mind:
I became a rush that horses tread:
I became a man, a hater of the wind,
Knowing one, out of all things, alone, that his head
Would not lie on the breast of his lips on the hair
Of the woman that he loves, until he dies;
Although the rushes and the fowl of the air
Cry of his love with their pitiful cries.



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