W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). The Wild Swans at Coole. 1919.

10. To a Young Beauty

DEAR fellow-artist, why so free

With every sort of company,

With every Jack and Jill?

Choose your companions from the best;

Who draws a bucket with the rest

Soon topples down the hill.

You may, that mirror for a school,

Be passionate, not bountiful

As common beauties may,

Who were not born to keep in trim

With old Ezekiel’s cherubim

But those of Beaujolet.

I know what wages beauty gives,

How hard a life her servant lives,

Yet praise the winters gone;

There is not a fool can call me friend,

And I may dine at journey’s end

With Landor and with Donne.