Sonnet 97
W. Shakespeare
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting
year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark
days seen!
What old Decembers bareness
everywhere!
And yet this time removed was
summers time;
The teeming autumn, big with rich
increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widowd wombs after their
lordsdecease:
Yet this abundant issue seemed to me
But hope of orphans, and unfathered
fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on
thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute:
Or, if they sing,tis with so dull a
cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading
the winters near.
When You Are Old
.William Butler Yeats
When you are old and grey and full of
sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this
book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft
look
Your eyes had once, and of their
shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad
grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or
true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in
you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing
face;
And bending down beside the glowing
bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
The Magi. Yeats
Now as at all times I can see in the
minds eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale
unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth
of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-
beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering
side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to
find once more,
Being by Calvarys turbulence
unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the
bestial floor.
AT CHRISTMAS TIME
At Christmas time, we deck the hall
With holly branches brave and tall,
With sturdy pine and hemlock bright -
And in the Yule log's dancing light
We tell old tales of field and fight
At Christmas time.
At Christmas time we pile the board
With flesh and fruit and vintage stored,
And mid the laughter and the glow
We tread a measure soft and slow,
And kiss beneath the mistletoe
At Christmas time.