William Butler Yeats
1865 - 1939


Her Praise

She is foremost of those that I would hear praised.
I have gone about the house, gone up and down,
As a young man does who has published a new book,
Or a young girl dressed out in her new gown,
And though I have turned the talk by hook or crook
Until her praise should be the uppermost theme,
A woman spoke of some new tale she had read,
A man confusedly in a half dream
As though some other name ran in his head.
She is foremost of those that I would hear praised.
I will talk no more of books or the long war
But walk by the dry thorn until I have found
Some begger sheltering from the wind, and there
Manage the talk until her name came round.
If there be rags enough he will know her name
And be well pleased remembering it, for in the old days,
Though she had young men's praise and old men's blame,
Among the poor both young and old gave her praise.