HIS DREAM <br />I SWAYED upon the gaudy stem <br />The butt-end of a steering-oar, <br />And saw wherever I could turn <br />A crowd upon a shore. <br />And though I would have hushed the crowd, <br />There was no mother's son but said, <br />'What is the figure in a shroud <br />Upon a gaudy bed?' <br />And after running at the brim <br />Cried out upon that thing beneath <br /> -- It had such dignity of limb -- <br />By the sweet name of Death. <br />Though I'd my finger on my lip, <br />What could I but take up the song? <br />And running crowd and gaudy ship <br />Cried out the whole night long, <br />Crying amid the glittering sea, <br />Naming it with ecstatic breath, <br />Because it had such dignity, <br />By the sweet name of Death.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/form-the-green-helmet-and-other-poems/
