The Poetical Works of William B. Yeats

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. When I was in America two or three years ago, I lectured at the Irish College of San J ose, and as I went through the quadrangle to the lecture hall the moonlight fell among the palm trees. I remember how strange and foreign all that beauty seemed to me; and yet the lads I spoke to were moved, as I thought, by the imaginative tradition that would have moved them at home. It seemed to me that they knew the history and the ballad poetry as I did, and were moved as I had been at their age by Davis's Lament for Owen Roe or by Mangan's Ode to the Maguire. I was able to forget the palm trees, and to say what I would have said to young men in Dublin or in Con nacht. As I am looking over the proof sheets of these two books, where I have gathered.

When I was in America two or three years ago, I lectured at the Irish College of San J osé, and as I went through the quadrangle to the lecture hall the moonlight fell among the palm trees. I remember how strange and foreign all that beauty seemed to me; and yet the lads I spoke to were moved, as I thought, by the imaginative tradition that would have moved them at home. It seemed to me that they knew the history and the ballad poetry as I did, and were moved as I had been at their age by Davis's Lament for Owen Roe or by Mangan's Ode to the Maguire. I was able to forget the palm trees, and to say what I would have said to young men in Dublin or in Con nacht. As I am looking over the proof sheets of these two books, where I have gathered.