Men Improve With The Years

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



I AM worn out with dreams;
A weather-worn, marble triton
Among the streams;
And all day long I look
Upon this lady's beauty
As though I had found in a book
A pictured beauty,
pleased to have filled the eyes
Or the discerning ears,
Delighted to be but wise,
For men improve with the years;
And yet, and yet,
Is this my dream, or the truth?
O would that we had met
When I had my burning youth!
But I grow old among dreams,
A weather-worn, marble triton
Among the streams.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

28 sec read
494

Quick analysis:

Scheme aBAcdcdefefghghaBA
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 460
Words 93
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

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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