BEAUTIFUL lofty things: O'Leary's noble head; <br />My father upon the Abbey stage, before him a raging crowd: <br />'This Land of Saints,' and then as the applause died out, <br />'Of plaster Saints'; his beautiful mischievous head thrown back. <br />Standish O'Grady supporting himself between the tables <br />Speaking to a drunken audience high nonsensical words; <br />Augusta Gregory seated at her great ormolu table, <br />Her eightieth winter approaching: 'Yesterday he threatened my life. <br />I told him that nightly from six to seven I sat at this table, <br />The blinds drawn up'; Maud Gonne at Howth station waiting a train, <br />Pallas Athene in that straight back and arrogant head: <br />All the Olympians; a thing never known again.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/beautiful-lofty-things/
