#MIDDLEBURY
Galway Races
W.B. Yeats
There where the racecourse is
Delight makes all of the one mind
The riders upon the swift horses
The field that closes in behind.
We too had good attendance once,
Hearers, hearteners of the work,
Aye, horsemen for companions
Before the merchant and the clerk
Breathed on the world with timid breath;
But some day and at some new moon
We’ll learn that sleeping is not death
Hearing the whole earth change its tune,
Flesh being wild again, and it again
Crying aloud as the racecourse is;
And find hearteners among men
That ride upon horses.
About this poem
“Galway Races” was published in Vol. 1, Issue 3 of The English Review in February of 1909.
About W.B. Yeats
W.B. Yeats was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. His collections of poetry include “The Poetical Works of William B. Yeats” (Macmillan, 1906) and “The Wild Swans at Coole” (Cuala Press, 1917). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 and died on Jan. 28, 1939.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
