Harriet Monroe, ed. (18601936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 191222. | | To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing | By William Butler Yeats |
| NOW all the truth is out, | |
Be secret and take defeat | |
From any brazen throat, | |
For how can you compete, | |
Being honor bred, with one | 5 |
Who were it proved he lies | |
Were neither shamed in his own | |
Nor in his neighbours eyes; | |
Bred to a harder thing | |
Than Triumph, turn away | 10 |
And like a laughing string | |
Whereon mad fingers play | |
Amid a place of stone, | |
Be secret and exult, | |
Because of all things known | 15 |
That is most difficult. | | | |
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