WHEN HELEN LIVED

by: W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

E have cried in our despair

That men desert,

For some trivial affair

Or noisy, insolent sport,

Beauty that we have won

From bitterest hours;

Yet we, had we walked within

Those topless towers

Where Helen walked with her boy,

Had given but as the rest

Of the men and women of Troy,

A word and a jest.

• The Land of Heart's Desire - A synopsis of the play by William Butler Yeats.
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