The Dawn

Portrait of William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats 1865–1939

I would be ignorant as the dawn That has looked down On that old queen measuring a town With the pin of a brooch, Or on the withered men that saw From their pedantic Babylon The careless planets in their courses, The stars fade out where the moon comes. And took their tablets and did sums; I would be ignorant as the dawn That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses; I would be -- for no knowledge is worth a straw -- Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.

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