{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/the-three-beggars",
 "title": "The Three Beggars",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "W. B. Yeats",
 "poet_slug": "w-b-yeats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Responsibilities",
 "book_slug": "responsibilities",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 6,
 "container": "Responsibilities",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1914,
  "venue": "Responsibilities (1914)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/responsibilities0000will_k2v1"
  ]
 },
 "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": 68,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Though to my feathers in the wet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have stood here from break of day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have not found a thing to eat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For only rubbish comes my way.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Am I to live on lebeen-lone?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Muttered the old crane of Gort.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“For all my pains on lebeen-lone.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "King Guari walked amid his court",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The palace-yard and river-side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there to three old beggars said:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You that have wandered far and wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can ravel out what’s in my head.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do men who least desire get most,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or get the most who most desire?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A beggar said: “They get the most",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom man or devil cannot tire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what could make their muscles taut",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unless desire had made them so.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Guari laughed with secret thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“If that be true as it seems true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One of you three is a rich man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he shall have a thousand pounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who is first asleep, if but he can",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep before the third noon sounds.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thereon merry as a bird,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With his old thoughts King Guari went",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From river-side and palace-yard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left them to their argument.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And if I win,” one beggar said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Though I am old I shall persuade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pretty girl to share my bed”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The second: “I shall learn a trade”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The third: “I’ll hurry to the course",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the other gentlemen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lay it all upon a horse”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The second: “I have thought again:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A farmer has more dignity.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One to another sighed and cried:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The exorbitant dreams of beggary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That idleness had borne to pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang through their teeth from noon to noon;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the second twilight brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The frenzy of the beggars’ moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "None closed his blood-shot eyes but sought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To keep his fellows from their sleep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All shouted till their anger grew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they were whirling in a heap.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They mauled and bit the whole night through;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They mauled and bit till the day shone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They mauled and bit through all that day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And till another night had gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or if they made a moment’s stay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They sat upon their heels to rail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when old Guari came and stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the three to end this tale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They were commingling lice and blood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Time’s up,” he cried, and all the three",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With blood-shot eyes upon him stared.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Time’s up,” he cried, and all the three",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell down upon the dust and snored.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Maybe I shall be lucky yet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now they are silent,” said the crane.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Though to my feathers in the wet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve stood as I were made of stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seen the rubbish run about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It’s certain there are trout somewhere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And maybe I shall take a trout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If but I do not seem to care.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}