William Butler Yeats
A Poem by Yeats
The brawling of a sparrow in the eaves
The brilliant moon and all the milky sky
And all that famous harmony of leaves
Had blotted out man's image and his cry

A girl arose that had red mournful lips
And seemed the greatness of the world in tears
Doomed like Odysseus and the labouring ships
And proud as Priam murdered with his peers;

Arose, and on the instant clamorous eaves
A climbing moon upon an empty sky
And all that lamentation of the leaves
Could but compose man's image and his cry