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

9. A Song

I THOUGHT no more was needed

Youth to prolong

Than dumb-bell and foil

To keep the body young.

Oh, who could have foretold

That the heart grows old?

Though I have many words,

What woman’s satisfied,

I am no longer faint

Because at her side?

Oh, who could have foretold

That the heart grows old?

I have not lost desire

But the heart that I had,

I thought ’twould burn my body

Laid on the death-bed.

But who could have foretold

That the heart grows old?