Others because you did not keep That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine; Yet always when I look death in the face, When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, Suddenly I meet your face.
In Yeats’s short lyric, the speaker addresses someone who broke a serious promise, perhaps a vow of love or loyalty. That betrayal, strangely, has led to other friendships: “Others because you did not keep / That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine.” But the opening does not sound grateful—it…
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