"He Thinks of His Past Greatness..." by William Butler Yeats (read by Tom O'Bedlam) @SpokenVerse

Uploaded October 2012 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

It's another cry of anguish directed at Maud Gonne
spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ACgonne.htm

Still, if they had lived happily ever after, the world would have missed out on some great poetry.

(If you notice a difference in timbre, it may be because this was recorded with a Shure SM7b microphone, not the Rode I usually use)

I HAVE drunk ale from the Country of the Young
And weep because I know all things now:
I have been a hazel-tree, and they hung
The Pilot Star and the Crooked Plough
Among my leaves in times out of mind:
I became a rush that horses tread:
I became a man, a hater of the wind,
Knowing one, out of all things, alone, that his head
May not lie on the breast nor his lips on thc hair
Of the woman that he loves, until he dies.
O beast of the wilderness, bird of the air,
Must I endure your amorous cries?

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