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The Collar-bone of a Hare

by W. B. Yeats, 1919

Would I could cast a sail on the water
 Where many a king has gone
 And many a king's daughter,
 And alight at the comely trees and the lawn,
 The playing upon pipes and the dancing,
 And learn that the best thing is
 To change my loves while dancing
 And pay but a kiss for a kiss.

 I would find by the edge of that water
 The collar-bone of a hare
 Worn thin by the lapping of water,
 And pierce it through with a gimlet and stare
 At the old bitter world where they marry in churches,
 And laugh over the untroubled water
 At all who marry in churches,
 Through the white thin bone of a hare.

Published in The Wild Swans at Coole
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