William Butler Yeats Dancing Quotations

Who can tell the dancer from the dance?

Come swish around, my pretty punk,And keep me dancing stillThat I may stay a sober manAlthough I drink my fill.

Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. O chestnut tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance How can we know the dancer from the dance?

Imagining in excited reverie That the future years had come, Dancing to a frenzied drum, Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

Come swish around my pretty punk And keep me dancing still That I may stay a sober man Although I drink my fill.

And learn that the best thing is To change my loves while dancing And pay but a kiss for a kiss.