All Things Can Tempt Me

William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)



ALL things can tempt me from this craft of verse:
One time it was a woman's face, or worse --
The seeming needs of my fool-driven land;
Now nothing but comes readier to the hand
Than this accustomed toil.  When I was young,
I had not given a penny for a song
Did not the poet Sing it with such airs
That one believed he had a sword upstairs;
Yet would be now, could I but have my wish,
Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

27 sec read
434

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCDEEFF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 426
Words 89
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. more…

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