Read "Friends" by W.B. Yeats online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Now must I these three praise -- / Three women that have wrought / What joy is in my days; / One that no passing thought, / Nor those unpassing cares, / No, not in these fifteen / Many times troubled years, / Could ever come between / Heart and delighted heart; / And one because her hand / Had strength that could unbind / What none can understand, / What none can have and thrive, / Youth's dreamy load, till she / So changed me that I live / Labouring in ecstasy. / And what of her that took / All till my youth was gone / With scarce a pitying look? / How should I praise that one? / When day begins to break / I count my good and bad, / Being wakeful for her sake, / Remembering what she had, / What eagle look still shows, / While up from my heart's root / So great a sweetness flows / I shake from head to foot.