The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all.
‘Death’
He knows death to the bone—
Man has created death.
‘Death’
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
‘Down by the Salley Gardens’
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
‘Easter, 1916’
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
‘Easter, 1916’
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,