Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

The Fascination of what's Difficult (Author: William Butler Yeats)

p.99

1. The fascination of what's difficult
   Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
   Spontaneous joy and natural content
   Out of my heart. There's something ails our colt
   That must, as if it had not holy blood,
   Nor on an Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud,
   Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt
   As though it dragged road metal. My curse on plays
   That have to be set up in fifty ways,
   On the day's war with every knave and dolt,

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   p.100

   Theatre business, management of men.
   I swear before the dawn comes round again
   I'll find the stable and pull out the bolt.