Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DAWN by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: I WOULD BE IGNORANT AS THE DAWN
Last Line: IGNORANT AND WANTON AS THE DAWN.
Subject(s): DAWN; IGNORANCE;
I WOULD be ignorant as the dawn
That has looked down
On that old queen measuring a town
With the pin of a brooch,
Or on the withered men that saw
From their pedantic Babylon
The careless planets in their courses,
The stars fade out where the moon comes,
And took their tablets and did sums;
I would be ignorant as the dawn
That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach
Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses;
I would be -- for no knowledge is worth a straw --
Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.



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