W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). The Wild Swans at Coole. 1919.

5. The Collar-bone of a Hare

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.