Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
His Dream (Author: William Butler Yeats)
p.85
- I SWAYED upon the gaudy stern
The butt end of a steering oar,
And everywhere that I could turn
Men ran upon the shore.
- And though I would have hushed the crowd
There was no mother's son but said,
'What is the figure in a shroud
Upon a gaudy bed?'
- And fishes bubbling to the brim
Cried out upon that thing beneath,
It had such dignity of limb
By the sweet name of Death.
- Though I'd my finger on my lip,
What could I but take up the song?
p.86
And fish and crowd and gaudy ship
Cried out the whole night long,
- Crying amid the glittering sea,
Naming it with ecstatic breath,
Because it had such dignity
By the sweet name of Death.