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1865–1939

WHEN HELEN LIVED

William Butler Yeats

We have cried in our despair That men desert, For some trivial affair Or noisy, insolent sport,

Beauty that we have won From bitterest hours; Yet we, had we walked within Those topless towers

Where Helen walked with her boy, Had given but as the rest Of the men and women of Troy, A word and a jest.

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WHEN HELEN LIVED · William Butler Yeats · Poetry Cove