The Scholars
The Scholars
Original Text
Yeats, William Butler. W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry: 71. Ed. by A. Norman Jeffares. London: Macmillan, 1968.
1Bald heads forgetful of their sins,
2Old, learned, respectable bald heads
3Edit and annotate the lines
4That young men, tossing on their beds,
5Rhymed out in love’s despair
6To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear.
7They’ll cough in the ink to the world’s end;
8Wear out the carpet with their shoes
9Earning respect; have no strange friend;
10If they have sinned nobody knows.
11Lord, what would they say
12Should their Catullus walk that way?
Publication Notes
The Wild Swans at Coole, 1919.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
Form