A MAN I praise that once in Tara's Hals <br />Said to the woman on his knees, 'Lie still. <br />My hundredth year is at an end. I think <br />That something is about to happen, I think <br />That the adventure of old age begins. <br />To many women I have said, ''Lie still,'' <br />And given everything a woman needs, <br />A roof, good clothes, passion, love perhaps, <br />But never asked for love; should I ask that, <br />I shall be old indeed.' <br />Thereon the man <br />Went to the Sacred House and stood between <br />The golden plough and harrow and spoke aloud <br />That all attendants and the casual crowd might hear. <br />'God I have loved, but should I ask return <br />Of God or woman, the time were come to die.' <br />He bade, his hundred and first year at end, <br />Diggers and carpenters make grave and coffin; <br />Saw that the grave was deep, the coffin sound, <br />Summoned the generations of his house, <br />Lay in the coffin, stopped his breath and died.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-tara-s-halls/
