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Home  »  The Wild Swans at Coole  »  7. Solomon to Sheba

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

7. Solomon to Sheba

SANG Solomon to Sheba,

And kissed her dusky face,

‘All day long from mid-day

We have talked in the one place,

All day long from shadowless noon

We have gone round and round

In the narrow theme of love

Like an old horse in a pound.’

To Solomon sang Sheba,

Planted on his knees,

‘If you had broached a matter

That might the learned please,

You had before the sun had thrown

Our shadows on the ground

Discovered that my thoughts, not it,

Are but a narrow pound.’

Said Solomon to Sheba,

And kissed her Arab eyes,

‘There’s not a man or woman

Born under the skies

Dare match in learning with us two,

And all day long we have found

There’s not a thing but love can make

The world a narrow pound.’