{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/nineteen-hundred-and-nineteen",
 "title": "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "W. B. Yeats",
 "poet_slug": "w-b-yeats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Tower",
 "book_slug": "the-tower",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "The Tower",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1928,
  "venue": "The Tower (1928)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/yeats_thetower_1928"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/w-b-yeats_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49608",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32491",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36865",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49609",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49615",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49609",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32233",
   "https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.92252",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001776372",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/fE8wAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/TWUEAAAAQAAJ",
   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/TFAwAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Irish_Monthly/EMoaAAAAYAAJ",
   "https://archive.org/details/gop-1889",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsandballads00unkngoog",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000551354",
   "https://archive.org/details/fairytalesirish00yeatrich",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008958226",
   "https://archive.org/details/countesskathleen00yeat",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008883383",
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofw01yeat",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksin01yeat",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksin02yeatuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksin00yeatuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/responsibilities00yeatiala",
   "https://books.google.com/books?id=jDI3AAAAIAAJ",
   "https://archive.org/details/robertes00wby/robertes00wby",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsyeatrich",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001020237"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-21"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 130,
  "n_stanzas": 16,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    10
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    10,
    11
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    11,
    15
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    15,
    16
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Many ingenious lovely things are gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Protected from the circle of the moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That pitches common things about. There stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the ornamental bronze and stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An ancient image made of olive wood⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gone are Phidias’ famous ivories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the golden grasshoppers and bees.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We too had many pretty toys when young;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A law indifferent to blame or praise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bribe or threat; habits that made old wrong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Melt down, as it were wax in the sun’s rays;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Public opinion ripening for so long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We thought it would outlive all future days.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O what fine thought we had because we thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the worst rogues and rascals had died out.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All teeth were drawn, all ancient tricks unlearned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a great army but a showy thing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What matter that no cannon had been turned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a ploughshare; parliament and king",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thought that unless a little powder burned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The trumpeters might burst with trumpeting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet it lack all glory; and perchance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The guardsmen’s drowsy chargers would not prance.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rides upon sleep: a drunken soldiery",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The night can sweat with terror as before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We pieced our thoughts into philosophy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And planned to bring the world under a rule,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who are but weasels fighting in a hole.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He who can read the signs nor sink unmanned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the half-deceit of some intoxicant",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From shallow wits; who knows no work can stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether health, wealth or peace of mind were spent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On master work of intellect or hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No honour leave its mighty monument,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has but one comfort left: all triumph would",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But break upon his ghostly solitude.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But is there any comfort to be found?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man is in love and loves what vanishes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What more is there to say? That country round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "None dared admit, if such a thought were his,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Incendiary or bigot could be found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To burn that stump on the Acropolis,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or break in bits the famous ivories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or traffic in the grasshoppers or bees?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When Loie Fuller’s Chinese dancers enwound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A shining web, a floating ribbon of cloth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seemed that a dragon of air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had fallen among dancers, had whirled them round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or hurried them off on its own furious path;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So the platonic year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whirls out new right and wrong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whirls in the old instead;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All men are dancers and their tread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Goes to the barbarous clangour of gong.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some moralist or mythological poet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Compares the solitary soul to a swan;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am satisfied with that,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Satisfied if a troubled mirror show it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before that brief gleam of its life be gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An image of its state;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wings half spread for flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The breast thrust out in pride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether to play, or to ride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those winds that clamour of approaching night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A man in his own secret meditation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is lost amid the labyrinth that he has made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In art or politics;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some platonist affirms that in the station",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where we should cast off body and trade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ancient habit sticks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that if our works could",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But vanish with our breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That were a lucky death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For triumph can but mar our solitude.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The swan has leaped into the desolate heaven:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That image can bring wildness, bring a rage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To end all things, to end",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What my laborious life imagined, even",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The half imagined, the half written page;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O but we dreamed to mend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whatever mischief seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To afflict mankind, but now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That winds of winter blow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Learn that we were crack-pated when we dreamed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We, who seven years ago",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Talked of honour and of truth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shriek with pleasure if we show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weasel’s twist, the weasel’s tooth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come let us mock at the great",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That had such burdens on the mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And toiled so hard and late",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To leave some monument behind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor thought of the levelling wind.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come let us mock at the wise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all those calendars whereon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They fixed old aching eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They never saw how seasons run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now but gape at the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come let us mock at the good",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That fancied goodness might be gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sick of solitude",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might proclaim a holiday:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wind shrieked⁠—and where are they?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Mock mockers after that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That would not lift a hand maybe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To help good, wise or great",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bar that foul storm out, for we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Traffic in mockery.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Violence upon the roads: violence of horses;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some few have handsome riders, are garlanded",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On delicate sensitive ear or tossing mane,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But wearied running round and round in their courses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All break and vanish, and evil gathers head:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Herodias’ daughters have returned again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sudden blast of dusty wind and after",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thunder of feet, tumult of images,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their purpose in the labyrinth of the wind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And should some crazy hand dare touch a daughter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All turn with amorous cries, or angry cries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "According to the wind, for all are blind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now wind drops, dust settles; thereupon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There lurches past, his great eyes without thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the shadow of stupid straw-pale locks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That insolent fiend Robert Artisson",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To whom the love-lorn Lady Kyteler brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bronzed peacock feathers, red combs of her cocks.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}