4.18.2025

satisfy ambition, animate The trivial days and ram them with the sun

Get all the gold and silver that you can, 
Satisfy ambition, animate 
The trivial days and ram them with the sun, 
And yet upon these maxims meditate: 
All women dote upon an idle man 
Although their children need a rich estate; 
No man has ever lived that had enough 
Of children's gratitude or woman's love. 
 
No longer in Lethean foliage caught 
Begin the preparation for your death 
And from the fortieth winter by that thought 
Test every work of intellect or faith 
And everything that your own hands have wrought, 
And call those works extravagance of breath 
That are not suited for such men as come 
Proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb. 
 
 [W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) "III" from 'Vacillation', in Selected Poems and Three Plays]

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