{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/the-tower",
 "title": "The Tower",
 "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": 1,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-21"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 195,
  "n_stanzas": 18,
  "n_parts": 3,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
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 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    14
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    14,
    18
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "What shall I do with this absurdity⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O heart, O troubled heart⁠—this caricature,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Decrepit age that has been tied to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to a dog’s tail? Never had I more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Excited, passionate, fantastical",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imagination, nor an ear and eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That more expected the impossible⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No, not in boyhood when with rod and fly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the humbler worm, I climbed Ben Bulben’s back",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had the livelong summer day to spend.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems that I must bid the Muse go pack,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Choose Plato and Plotinus for a friend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until imagination, ear and eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can be content with argument and deal",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In abstract things; or be derided by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sort of battered kettle at the heel.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I pace upon the battlements and stare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the foundations of a house, or where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tree, like a sooty finger, starts from the earth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And send imagination forth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the day’s declining beam, and call",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Images and memories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From ruin or from ancient trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I would ask a question of them all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Beyond that ridge lived Mrs. French, and once",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When every silver candlestick or sconce",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lit up the dark mahogany and the wine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A serving man that could divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That most respected lady’s every wish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ran and with the garden shears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clipped an insolent farmer’s ears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought them in a little covered dish.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Some few remembered still when I was young",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A peasant girl commended by a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’d lived somewhere upon that rocky place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And praised the colour of her face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had the greater joy in praising her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remembering that, if walked she there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Farmers jostled at the fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So great a glory did the song confer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And certain men, being maddened by those rhymes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or else by toasting her a score of times,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose from the table and declared it right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To test their fancy by their sight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But they mistook the brightness of the moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the prosaic light of day⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Music had driven their wits astray⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one was drowned in the great bog of Cloone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Strange, but the man who made the song was blind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, now I have considered it, I find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That nothing strange; the tragedy began",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Homer that was a blind man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Helen has all living hearts betrayed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O may the moon and sunlight seem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One inextricable beam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For if I triumph I must make men mad.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And I myself created Hanrahan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drove him drunk or sober through the dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From somewhere in the neighbouring cottages.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caught by an old man’s juggleries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He stumbled, tumbled, fumbled to and fro",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had but broken knees for hire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And horrible splendour of desire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought it all out twenty years ago:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Good fellows shuffled cards in an old bawn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when that ancient ruffian’s turn was on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He so bewitched the cards under his thumb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all, but the one card, became",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pack of hounds and not a pack of cards,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that he changed into a hare.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hanrahan rose in frenzy there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And followed up those baying creatures towards⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O towards I have forgotten what⁠—enough!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I must recall a man that neither love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor music nor an enemy’s clipped ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could, he was so harried, cheer;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A figure that has grown so fabulous",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s not a neighbour left to say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he finished his dog’s day:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An ancient bankrupt master of this house.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Before that ruin came, for centuries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rough men-at-arms, cross-gartered to the knees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or shod in iron, climbed the narrow stairs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And certain men-at-arms there were",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose images, in the Great Memory stored,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come with loud cry and panting breast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To break upon a sleeper’s rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While their great wooden dice beat on the board.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As I would question all, come all who can;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come old, necessitous, half-mounted man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bring beauty’s blind rambling celebrant;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The red man the juggler sent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through God-forsaken meadows; Mrs. French,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gifted with so fine an ear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man drowned in a bog’s mire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When mocking muses chose the country wench.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Did all old men and women, rich and poor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who trod upon these rocks or passed this door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether in public or in secret rage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As I do now against old age?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I have found an answer in those eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That are impatient to be gone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go therefore; but leave Hanrahan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I need all his mighty memories.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Old lecher with a love on every wind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring up out of that deep considering mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All that you have discovered in the grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For it is certain that you have",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reckoned up every unforeknown, unseeing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Plunge, lured by a softening eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or by a touch or a sigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the labyrinth of another’s being;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Does the imagination dwell the most",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon a woman won or woman lost?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If on the lost, admit you turned aside",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From a great labyrinth out of pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cowardice, some silly over-subtle thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or anything called conscience once;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that if memory recur, the sun’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under eclipse and the day blotted out.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It is time that I wrote my will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I choose upstanding men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That climb the streams until",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fountain leap, and at dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drop their cast at the side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of dripping stone; I declare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They shall inherit my pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pride of people that were",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bound neither to Cause nor to State,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Neither to slaves that were spat on,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor to the tyrants that spat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The people of Burke and of Grattan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That gave, though free to refuse⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pride, like that of the morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the headlong light is loose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or that of the fabulous horn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or that of the sudden shower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all streams are dry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or that of the hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the swan must fix his eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon a fading gleam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Float out upon a long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Last reach of glittering stream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there sing his last song.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I declare my faith;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I mock Plotinus’ thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cry in Plato’s teeth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death and life were not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till man made up the whole,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made lock, stock and barrel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of his bitter soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aye, sun and moon and star, all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And further add to that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, being dead, we rise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dream and so create",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Translunar Paradise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have prepared my peace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With learned Italian things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the proud stones of Greece,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poet’s imaginings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And memories of love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Memories of the words of women,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All those things whereof",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man makes a superhuman,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mirror-resembling dream.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As at the loophole there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The daws chatter and scream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drop twigs layer upon layer.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When they have mounted up,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mother bird will rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On their hollow top,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so warm her wild nest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I leave both faith and pride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To young upstanding men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Climbing the mountain side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That under bursting dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They may drop a fly;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being of that metal made",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till it was broken by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This sedentary trade.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now shall I make my soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Compelling it to study",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a learned school",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the wreck of body,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slow decay of blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Testy delirium",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or dull decrepitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or what worse evil come⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The death of friends, or death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of every brilliant eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That made a catch in the breath⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seem but the clouds of the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the horizon fades;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or a bird’s sleepy cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the deepening shades.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}