The World's Premier

Humanitarian Web Resource

Return to List of Poems by W B Yeats - by Title
Return to List of Poems by W B Yeats - by Extract

“And all seems evil until I
Sleepless would lie down and die.”

---

The Man and the Echo

W B Yeats (1939)


Man
In a cleft that’s christened Alt
Under broken stone I halt
At the bottom of a pit
That broad noon has never lit,
And shout a secret to the stone.
All that I have said and done,
Now that I am old and ill,
Turns into a question till
I lie awake night after night
And never get the answers right.
Did that play of mine send out
Certain men the English shot?
Did words of mine put too great strain
On that woman's reeling brain?
Could my spoken words have checked
That whereby a house lay wrecked?
And all seems evil until I
Sleepless would lie down and die.

Echo
Lie down and die.

Man
                              That were to shirk
The spiritual intellect’s great work,
And shirk it in vain. There is no release
In a bodkin or disease,
Nor can there be work so great
As that which cleans man’s dirty slate.
While man can still his body keep
Wine or love drug him to sleep,
Waking he thanks the Lord that he
Has body and its stupidity,
But body gone he sleeps no more,
And till his intellect grows sure
That all's arranged in one clear view,
pursues the thoughts that I pursue,
Then stands in judgment on his soul,
And all work done, dismisses all
Out of intellect and sight
And sinks at last into the night.

Echo
Into the night.

Man
                       O Rocky Voice,
Shall we in that great night rejoice?
What do we know but that we face
One another in this place?
But hush, for I have lost the theme,
Its joy or night-seem but a dream;
Up there some hawk or owl has struck,
Dropping out of sky or rock,
A stricken rabbit is crying out,
And its cry distracts my thought.

Return to List of Poems by W B Yeats - by Title
Return to List of Poems by W B Yeats - by Extract

---

Sister Sites Maintained as Educational Resources by the Same Authors:

Link to: FCT World - Resources on the Unique & Powerful System of Medicine called Field Control Therapy

Link to: Key Toxins - Exclusive Articles, Info & Interviews about Toxicity, the World's Most Pressing Issue

Link to: Tibetan Pulsing World - Resources on the Transformative System of Yoga & Meditation called Tibetan Pulsing

Link to: Deep Energy Healing - Resources on Different Therapies, the Nature of Healing and the Future of Medicine

---

© Copyright 2007 Simon Rees, Kevin Eakins and SYY Integrated Health Systems, Ltd.

Disclaimer: The information at this website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The content of this website comprises only the observations and opinions of the authors and contributors: it does not constitute medical advice to readers.