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1865–1939

THE DAWN

William Butler Yeats

I would be ignorant as the dawn That has looked down On that old queen measuring a town With the pin of a brooch,

Or on the withered men that saw From their pedantic Babylon The careless planets in their courses, The stars fade out where the moon comes,

And took their tablets and did sums; I would be ignorant as the dawn That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses;

I would be — for no knowledge is worth a straw — Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.

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THE DAWN · William Butler Yeats · Poetry Cove