The Fascination Of What's Difficult

Portrait of William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats 1865–1939

The fascination of what's difficult Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent Spontaneous joy and natural content Out of my heart. There's something ails our colt That must, as if it had not holy blood Nor on Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud, Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt As though it dragged road-metal. My curse on plays That have to be set up in fifty ways, On the day's war with every knave and dolt, Theatre business, management of men. I swear before the dawn comes round again I'll find the stable and pull out the bolt.

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  1. Janet China

    this is a good poem becuase i like it a lot and i like the whole thing

  2. Katie United States

    Plath

    William Butler Yeats wrote this poem, not Plath.

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