%ISOlat1; %ISOlat2; %ISOnum; %ISOpub; %ISOdia; ]> Introductory Rhymes An electronic edition William Butler Yeats Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber Juliette Maffet School of History, University College, Cork First draft. 565 CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork
College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt
2012 CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland. E910001-001

The works by W. B. Yeats are in the public domain. This electronic text is available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of private or academic research and teaching.

 Bibliography A bibliography is available online at the official web site of the Nobel Prize. See: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bibl.html The edition used in the digital edition William Butler Yeats Introductory Rhymes William Butler Yeats Responsibilities and other Poems The Macmillan Company New York 1916 1–2

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

The whole selection.

Text has been proof-read twice.

The electronic text represents the edited text. Lines (or parts of them) reproduced in italics in the printed edition are tagged hi rend="ital".

The editorial practice of the hard-copy editor has been retained.

div0 =the poem, stanzas are marked lg.

Names of persons (given names), and places are not tagged. Terms for cultural and social roles are not tagged.

 By William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). January 1914 The poem is in English. 2012-02-08 Beatrix Färber ed. File proofed (2), additions to encoding made; header completed; file parsed; SGML and HTML files created. 2012-02-01 Juliette Maffet ed. Header created. 2012-01-23 Juliette Maffet ed. First proofing. 2012-01-18 Juliette Maffet file capture Text captured by scanning. Introductory Rhymes January 1914 Pardon, old fathers, if you still remain Somewhere in ear-shot for the story's end, Old Dublin merchant 'free of ten and four' Or trading out of Galway into Spain; And country scholar, Robert Emmet's friend, A hundred-year-old memory to the poor; Traders or soldiers who have left me blood That has not passed through any huxter's loin, Pardon, and you that did not weigh the cost, Old Butlers when you took to horse and stood Beside the brackish waters of the Boyne Till your bad master blenched and all was lost; You merchant skipper that leaped overboard After a ragged hat in Biscay Bay, You most of all, silent and fierce old man Because you were the spectacle that stirred My fancy, and set my boyish lips to say Only the wasteful virtues earn the, sun; Pardon that for a barren passion's sake, Although I have come close on forty-nine I have no child, I have nothing but a book, Nothing but that to prove your blood and mine.