All Things Can Tempt Me

 All things can tempt me from this craft of verse:
 One time it was a fair dame's face, or worse --
 The so-called needs of my by fools run land;
 Now nought there is but comes so quick to the hand
 Than this so well-known toil.  When I was young,
 I did not give a small coin for a song
 Did not the verse-man sing it with such airs
 One thought he had a sword kept up the stairs;
 Yet he'd be now, could I but have my wish,
 More cold, more dumb, more deaf than is a fish.

                                -- Will Yeats

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