The Dancer At Cruachan And Cro-Patrick
I, proclaiming that there is
Among birds or beasts or men
One that is perfect or at peace.
Danced on Cruachan's windy plain,
Upon Cro-patrick sang aloud;
All that could run or leap or swim
Whether in wood, water or cloud,
Acclaiming, proclaiming, declaiming Him.
poem by William Butler Yeats
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Words For Music Perhaps
I - CRAZY JANE AND THE BISHOP
BRING me to the blasted oak
That I, midnight upon the stroke,
(All find safety in the tomb.)
May call down curses on his head
Because of my dear Jack that's dead.
Coxcomb was the least he said:
The solid man and the coxcomb.
Nor was he Bishop when his ban
Banished Jack the Journeyman,
(All find safety in the tomb.)
Nor so much as parish priest,
Yet he, an old book in his fist,
Cried that we lived like beast and beast:
The solid man and the coxcomb.
The Bishop has a skin, God knows,
Wrinkled like the foot of a goose,
(All find safety in the tomb.)
Nor can he hide in holy black
The heron's hunch upon his back,
But a birch-tree stood my Jack:
The solid man and the coxcomb.
Jack had my virginity,
And bids me to the oak, for he
(all find safety in the tomb.)
Wanders out into the night
And there is shelter under it,
But should that other come, I spit:
The solid man and the coxcomb.
II - CRAZY JANE REPROVED
I CARE not what the sailors say:
All those dreadful thunder-stones,
All that storm that blots the day
Can but show that Heaven yawns;
Great Europa played the fool
That changed a lover for a bull.
Fol de rol, fol de rol.
To round that shell's elaborate whorl,
Adorning every secret track
With the delicate mother-of-pearl,
Made the joints of Heaven crack:
So never hang your heart upon
A roaring, ranting journeyman.
Fol de rol, fol de rol.
III - CRAZY JANE ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
'LOVE is all
Unsatisfied
That cannot take the whole
Body and soul';
And that is what Jane said.
'Take the sour
If you take me
I can scoff and lour
And scold for an hour.'
'That's certainly the case,' said he.
'Naked I lay,
The grass my bed;
Naked and hidden away,
That black day';
And that is what Jane said.
'What can be shown?
What true love be?
All could be known or shown
If Time were but gone.'
'That's certainly the case,' said he.
IV - CRAZY JANE AND JACK THE JOURNEYMAN
I KNOW, although when looks meet
I tremble to the bone,
The more I leave the door unlatched
The sooner love is gone,
For love is but a skein unwound
Between the dark and dawn.
A lonely ghost the ghost is
That to God shall come;
I -- love's skein upon the ground,
My body in the tomb --
Shall leap into the light lost
In my mother's womb.
But were I left to lie alone
In an empty bed,
The skein so bound us ghost to ghost
When he turned his head
passing on the road that night,
Mine must walk when dead.
V - CRAZY JANE ON GOD
THAT lover of a night
Came when he would,
Went in the dawning light
Whether I would or no;
Men come, men go;
All things remain in God.
Banners choke the sky;
Men-at-arms tread;
Armoured horses neigh
In the narrow pass:
All things remain in God.
Before their eyes a house
That from childhood stood
Uninhabited, ruinous,
Suddenly lit up
From door to top:
All things remain in God.
I had wild Jack for a lover;
Though like a road
That men pass over
My body makes no moan
But sings on:
All things remain in God.
VI - CRAZY JANE TALKS WITH THE BISHOP
I MET the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
'Those breasts are flat and fallen now,
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.'
'Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,' I cried.
'My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart's pride.
'A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.'
VII - CRAZY JANE GROWN OLD LOOKS AT THE DANCERS
I FOUND that ivory image there
Dancing with her chosen youth,
But when he wound her coal-black hair
As though to strangle her, no scream
Or bodily movement did I dare,
Eyes under eyelids did so gleam;
Love is like the lion's tooth.
When She, and though some said she played
I said that she had danced heart's truth,
Drew a knife to strike him dead,
I could but leave him to his fate;
For no matter what is said
They had all that had their hate;
Love is like the lion's tooth.
Did he die or did she die?
Seemed to die or died they both?
God be with the times when I
Cared not a thraneen for what chanced
So that I had the limbs to try
Such a dance as there was danced --
Love is like the lion's tooth.
VIII - GIRL'S SONG
I WENT out alone
To sing a song or two,
My fancy on a man,
And you know who.
Another came in sight
That on a stick relied
To hold himself upright;
I sat and cried.
And that was all my song --
When everything is told,
Saw I an old man young
Or young man old?
IX - YOUNG MAN'S SONG
'SHE will change,' I cried.
'Into a withered crone.'
The heart in my side,
That so still had lain,
In noble rage replied
And beat upon the bone:
'Uplift those eyes and throw
Those glances unafraid:
She would as bravely show
Did all the fabric fade;
No withered crone I saw
Before the world was made.'
Abashed by that report,
For the heart cannot lie,
I knelt in the dirt.
And all shall bend the knee
To my offended heart
Until it pardon me.
X - HER ANXIETY
EARTH in beauty dressed
Awaits returning spring.
All true love must die,
Alter at the best
Into some lesser thing.
Prove that I lie.
Such body lovers have,
Such exacting breath,
That they touch or sigh.
Every touch they give,
Love is nearer death.
Prove that I lie.
XI - HIS CONFIDENCE
UNDYING love to buy
I wrote upon
The corners of this eye
All wrongs done.
What payment were enough
For undying love?
I broke my heart in two
So hard I struck.
What matter? for I know
That out of rock,
Out of a desolate source,
Love leaps upon its course.
XII - LOVE'S LONELINESS
OLD fathers, great-grandfathers,
Rise as kindred should.
If ever lover's loneliness
Came where you stood,
Pray that Heaven protect us
That protect your blood.
The mountain throws a shadow,
Thin is the moon's horn;
What did we remember
Under the ragged thorn?
Dread has followed longing,
And our hearts are torn.
XIII - HER DREAM
I DREAMED as in my bed I lay,
All night's fathomless wisdom come,
That I had shorn my locks away
And laid them on Love's lettered tomb:
But something bore them out of sight
In a great tumult of the air,
And after nailed upon the night
Berenice's burning hair.
XIV - HIS BARGAIN
WHO talks of Plato's spindle;
What set it whirling round?
Eternity may dwindle,
Time is unwound,
Dan and Jerry Lout
Change their loves about.
However they may take it,
Before the thread began
I made, and may not break it
When the last thread has run,
A bargain with that hair
And all the windings there.
XV - THREE THINGS
'O CRUEL Death, give three things back,'
Sang a bone upon the shore;
'A child found all a child can lack,
Whether of pleasure or of rest,
Upon the abundance of my breast':
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.
'Three dear things that women know,'
Sang a bhone upon the shore;
'A man if I but held him so
When my body was alive
Found all the pleasure that life gave':
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.
'The third thing that I think of yet,'
Sang a bone upon the shore,
'Is that morning when I met
Face to face my rightful man
And did after stretch and yawn':
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.
XVI - LULLABY
BELOVED, may your sleep be sound
That have found it where you fed.
What were all the world's alarms
To mighty paris when he found
Sleep upon a golden bed
That first dawn in Helen's arms?
Sleep, beloved, such a sleep
As did that wild Tristram know
When, the potion's work being done,
Roe could run or doe could leap
Under oak and beechen bough,
Roe could leap or doe could run;
Such a sleep and sound as fell
Upon Eurotas' grassy bank
When the holy bird, that there
Accomplished his predestined will,
From the limbs of Leda sank
But not from her protecting care.
XVII - AFTER LONG SILENCE
SPEECH after long silence; it is right,
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night,
That we descant and yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song:
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
We loved each other and were ignorant.
XVIII - MAD AS THE MIST AND SNOW
BOLT and bar the shutter,
For the foul winds blow:
Our minds are at their best this night,
And I seem to know
That everything outside us is
Mad as the mist and snow.
Horace there by Homer stands,
Plato stands below,
And here is Tully's open page.
How many years ago
Were you and I unlettered lads
Mad as the mist and snow?
You ask what makes me sigh, old friend,
What makes me shudder so?
I shudder and I sigh to think
That even Cicero
And many-minded Homer were
Mad as the mist and snow.
XIX - THOSE DANCING DAYS ARE GONE
COME, let me sing into your ear;
Those dancing days are gone,
All that silk and satin gear;
Crouch upon a stone,
Wrapping that foul body up
In as foul a rag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.
Curse as you may I sing it through;
What matter if the knave
That the most could pleasure you,
The children that he gave,
Are somewhere sleeping like a top
Under a marble flag?
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.
I thought it out this very day.
Noon upon the clock,
A man may put pretence away
Who leans upon a stick,
May sing, and sing until he drop,
Whether to maid or hag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup,
The moon in a silver bag.
XX - 'I AM OF IRELAND'
AM of Ireland,
And the Holy Land of Ireland,
And time runs on,' cried she.
'Come out of charity,
Come dance with me in Ireland.'
One man, one man alone
In that outlandish gear,
One solitary man
Of all that rambled there
Had turned his stately head.
That is a long way off,
And time runs on,' he said,
'And the night grows rough.'
I am of Ireland,
And the Holy Land of Ireland,
And time runs on,' cried she.
'Come out of charity
And dance with me in Ireland.'
The fiddlers are all thumbs,
Or the fiddle-string accursed,
The drums and the kettledrums
And the trumpets all are burst,
And the trombone,' cried he,
'The trumpet and trombone,'
And cocked a malicious eye,
'But time runs on, runs on.'
I am of Ireland,
And the Holy Land of Ireland,
And time runs on,' cried she.
'Come out of charity
And dance with me in Ireland.'
XXI - THE DANCER AT CRUACHAN AND CRO-PATRICK
I, PROCLAIMING that there is
Among birds or beasts or men
One that is perfect or at peace.
Danced on Cruachan's windy plain,
Upon Cro-patrick sang aloud;
All that could run or leap or swim
Whether in wood, water or cloud,
Acclaiming, proclaiming, declaiming Him.
XXII - TOM THE LUNATIC
SANG old Tom the lunatic
That sleeps under the canopy:
'What change has put my thoughts astray
And eyes that had s-o keen a sight?
What has turned to smoking wick
Nature's pure unchanging light?
'Huddon and Duddon and Daniel O'Leary.
Holy Joe, the beggar-man,
Wenching, drinking, still remain
Or sing a penance on the road;
Something made these eyeballs weary
That blinked and saw them in a shroud.
'Whatever stands in field or flood,
Bird, beast, fish or man,
Mare or stallion, cock or hen,
Stands in God's unchanging eye
In all the vigour of its blood;
In that faith I live or die.'
XXIII - TOM AT CRUACHAN
ON Cruachan's plain slept he
That must sing in a rhyme
What most could shake his soul:
'The stallion Eternit
Mounted the mare of Time,
'Gat the foal of the world.'
XXIV - OLD TOM AGAIN
THINGS out of perfection sail,
And all their swelling canvas wear,
Nor shall the self-begotten fail
Though fantastic men suppose
Building-yard and stormy shore,
Winding-sheet and swaddling -- clothes.
XXV - THE DELPHIC ORACLE UPON PLOTINUS
BEHOLD that great Plotinus swim,
Buffeted by such seas;
Bland Rhadamanthus beckons him,
But the Golden Race looks dim,
Salt blood blocks his eyes.
Scattered on the level grass
Or winding through the grove
plato there and Minos pass,
There stately Pythagoras
And all the choir of Love.
poem by William Butler Yeats
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Lucifer's War
My father’s house is destroyed
Due to inhalation of poisonous racism
That ruined the entire nation.
How could that be? He created the human race -
Yet here we are fighting against tribal ground,
We claimed we are under desolation,
Proclaiming the tidbits of our existence,
Fighting for freedom? Or are we just ignorant?
We are the by product of the heavenly war,
When Lucifer wage war against his creator,
Proclaiming his arrogant (self) existence,
Was his war justified or not?
He was clothed with all precious diadems,
Exalted by his loving creator,
But he rose against him,
Proclaiming his highest dominance.
Do you see yourself?
Government of this world,
Or your house government, and work governance?
Aren’t you exalting yourself? Don’t sabotage the other?
Don’t you not? You hail yourself for your ignorance.
Justice you say,
Where is justice?
Corrupt are you all, who hail himself higher than -
The most high God who created this universe.
poem by Tess Rockenstire
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Today... 'All in All
My Lord, My God, You are my All in All
You are so lovely and so wonderful
and prostrate at Your feet all men shall fall
proclaiming You as King and Lord of All.
Jesus, the Altogether Lovely One
is Gods' One and Only Beloved Son.
The Lord whom both heaven and earth adore
is reigning in heaven for evermore.
Angels surrounding Your heavenly throne
proclaiming that You are worthy alone.
Multitudes of redeemed their praises sing
and to the All in All their worship bring.
(see also the additional information in the Poet's notes box)
While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
quote by Francis of Assisi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Song of Enchantment
A song of Enchantment I sang me there,
In a green-green wood, by waters fair,
Just as the words came up to me
I sang it under the wild wood tree.
Widdershins turned I, singing it low,
Watching the wild birds come and go;
No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen
Under the thick-thatched branches green.
Twilight came: silence came:
The planet of Evening's silver flame;
By darkening paths I wandered through
Thickets trembling with drops of dew.
But the music is lost and the words are gone
Of the song I sang as I sat alone,
Ages and ages have fallen on me -
On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.
poem by Walter de la Mare
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Melmillo
Three and thirty birds there stood
In an elder in a wood;
Called Melmillo -- flew off three,
Leaving thirty in the tree;
Called Melmillo -- nine now gone,
And the boughs held twenty-one;
Called Melmillo -- and eighteen
Left but three to nod and preen;
Called Melmillo -- three--two--one--
Now of birds were feathers none.
Then stole slim Me.millo in
To that wood all dusk and green,
And with lean long palms outspread
Softly a strange dance did tread;
Not a note of music she
Had for echoing company;
All the birds were flown to rest
In the hollow of her breast;
In the wood -- thorn, elder willow --
Danced alone -- lone danced Melmillo.
poem by Walter de la Mare
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Taking out the Trash
Twice a week in break of dawn
While the stars are outstanding
I screw the plastic lids on tight
Moles and chipmunks might get in
Summer in my shirtsleeves smart
A chorus of derisive birds
Winter with my overcoat
Frost and mist, dismissive words
The plastic, glass and house discards
Out by six and standing proud
Proclaiming waste and affluence
Of which we do not speak aloud
Who has the skills to sort this stuff
The piles we evacuate
Who can recycle or degrade
The trash we have thrown out too late
Nothing to rescue or be claimed
Once items pass their sell-by date.
poem by Frank Bana
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Intro/walk On Water
Here is the water
The one that rushes
From our hearts into the sea
Endlessly hoping to be
Here is the water
The one that rushes from our
Minds into the street
Endlessly hoping to meet
They said we could walk on water
They said we should knock on wood
We did none of these things and they said we could sing
So we sang about falling in love
They said that we were getting smarter
They said that we were something new
We were none of these things and they said we could sing
So we sang about twenty and two
We done all the wrong things
And all we done good
They said we were the new beginning
They said we were a brand new start
We were none of these thing and they said we could sing
So we sang about the state of the art
They said we were the second coming
They said we were a different breed
We were none of these things and they said we could sing
So we sang about the birds and the bees
Bunch of do nothing that were down on your knees
Can you walk on water
But can you walk on - w a t e r (oh no)
Can you walk on - w a t e r
Oh can you walk on water
They said we could walk on water
They said we should knock on wood
We did none of these things and they said we could sing
So we sang about falling in love
They say that we say we say something
They say that we say something new
We say some of these things and they say we can sing
So we sang about a hundred and two
But if nobody listens well nothing comes true
When you walk on water
When you walk on - w a t e r (oh no)
Can you walk on - w a t e r
Oh can you walk on water
Can you walk on - w a t e r (oh no)
Can you walk on - w a t e r
Oh can you walk on water
We never walked on - w a t e r
So tell me something smarter w a t e r
Matadors monkeys, a million balloons
As we walk through the sea to the sand
Knowing full well that were perfectly tuned
As we skip through our hearts hand in hand
Well jenny the older
Whose music we heard
Will we all meet again at the end of the world
No sense in fooling
Were covered in dreams
Having too much fun flying to land
Floating waste high in tendrils of green
Were so small but we feel oh so grand
Well jenny the older
Whose music we heard
Will we all meet again at the end of the world
End of the world
Well jenny the older
Whose music we heard
Will we all meet again at the end of the world
The end of the world
On tuesday
The end of the world
Pop goes the world
The end of the world
Pop goes the world
On tuesday
The end of the world
The real world
Pop goes the world
On tuesday
song performed by by Men Without Hats
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Gentle Creature
Gentle creature of the seas swimming happy, swimming free
dives into the sea with grace surfaces to show it's gentle face
Why are people so cruel to gentle creatures like you
You should be left to swim in peace
Graceful through the water you swim diving out and diving in
Oblivious to the world around across the water you leap and bound
Hours of fun you do provide playing, chasing then you hide
To the surface again you rise
How sad it would be if you were no more
If we could not stand upon the shore and watch you're playful
antics forever more
poem by Jenni Burt
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The mission proper to the Church is that of proclaiming the Gospel.
quote by Karl Lehmann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Proclaiming a sexual preference is something that straight men never really have to bother with.
quote by Lance Loud
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
On The Gum Tree On The Road Side
On the gum tree on the road side I can hear the unmelodious crow
Cawing in the gathering twilight his voice I have come to know
He doesn't seem worried by the weather though it has rained for most of the day
He is proclaiming his borders and Spring doesn't seem that far away.
Known as the Australian raven he is a stranger to fame
Wild life artists tend to ignore him and poets seldom mention him by name
Maybe because he lacks in beauty and maybe because he can't sing
He is one whose name is not mentioned amongst the feathered minstrels of Spring.
Hated by Aussie sheep farmers one good word of his kind they won't speak
They kill the frail newly born lambs and any mercy do not show to the weak
Yet these birds are the great survivors and in a hostile environment they thrive
And despite persecution by farmers the wily raven survive.
In a stick nest high on a tall tree three to six green eggs with freckles of brown
Ravens are birds of the paddocks and of the parks of the town,
Their great story of survival is a story to inspire
They may be lacking in beauty yet them one can't help but admire.
High on the gum on the road side as shades of night creep through the sky
The Aussie raven is cawing on this wet evening in July
He doesn't seem worried by the weather though it has rained for most of the day
He is proclaiming his borders and Spring is not that far away.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Small Minded Culture
Spreads an idea
Proclaiming itself to be
The truth.
An idea in its most
Simplistic form.
Spend all your years in it
And never get the meaning.
Keep questioning what the
Truth might really be.
And while returning to the light
You see life could have been more.
But if you breathe for more air
Returning to the life
That travels in a dark cloud…
You communicate
The message to the blind.
And only hope
It will be seen.
poem by Erica Borges
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
quote by Thomas B. Macaulay
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
As You Believe So You Can Achieve
Believe you are Able, then you Cain do anything Ably.
Believe you are Intelligent, then you will think Logically.
Believe you have Potential, then you will Succeed.
Believe you are Fair, so you will act Justly in Need.
Believe you are Kind and treat others with Respect.
Believe you are Unique and accept yourself as you are though not Perfect.
Believe you are God’s child and pay no heed to self-righteous hypocrites.
Believe in the Lord and accept Salvation rites.
Believe that Christ died for you; realise ill intentioned are those proclaiming perfection.
Believe that it is Acceptable to make some and if you do, learn from them no to mention.
poem by Hercolena Oliver
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Mont Brevent
O dweller in the valley, lift thine eyes
To where, above the drift of cloud, the stone
Endures in silence, and to God alone
Upturns its furrowed visage, and is wise.
There yet is being, far from all that dies,
And beauty where no mortal maketh moan,
Where larger planets swim the liquid zone,
And wider spaces stretch to calmer skies.
Only a little way above the plain
Is snow eternal. Round the mountain's knees
Hovers the fury of the wind and rain.
Look up, and teach thy noble heart to cease
From endless labour. There is perfect peace
Only a little way above thy pain.
poem by George Santayana
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Allie
Allie, call the birds in,
The birds from the sky.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
Down they all fly.
First there came
Two white doves
Then a sparrow from his nest,
Then a clucking bantam hen,
Then a robin red-breast.
Allie, call the beasts in,
The beasts, every one.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
In they all run.
First there came
Two black lambs,
Then a grunting Berkshire sow,
Then a dog without a tail,
Then a red and white cow.
Allie, call the fish up,
The fish from the stream.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
Up they all swim.
First there came
Two gold fish,
A minnow and a miller's thumb,
Then a pair of loving trout,
Then the twisted eels come.
Allie, call the children,
Children from the green.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
Soon they run in.
First there came
Tom and Madge,
Kate and I who'll not forget
How we played by the water's edge
Till the April sun set.
poem by Robert Graves
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
We're not short of movements proclaiming that a different world is possible, but unless we can coordinate them into an international movement, capitalism just laughs at all these little organisations.
quote by Jose Saramago
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.
quote by Naguib Mahfouz
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Day The Sun Sang
The moon stood,
The sea sank,
The mountains melted,
And no man died,
The day the Sun sang.
All birds blubbered,
All goats flew,
All insects sailed,
And no woman menstruated,
The day the Sun sang.
No shoe was worn,
No cloth washed,
No undies lined,
And no baby cried,
The day the Sun sang.
Whose eye saw?
Whose nose perceived?
Whose hand laboured?
And which being ate?
The day the Sun sang.
Only a star shone,
Only a match lit,
Only a wood burned,
And no life slept,
The day the Sun sang.
Mankind wailed,
Animals flinched,
Dead bodies respired,
And no creature ever wished,
That the Sun should ever sing!
poem by Ajayi Olubunmi Kolade
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!