William Butler Yeats

The Dolls

A DOLL in the doll-maker's house Looks at the cradle and bawls: "That is an insult to us. ' But the oldest of all the dolls, Who had seen, being kept for show, Generations of his sort, Out-screams the whole shelf:  'Although There's not a man can report Evil of this place, The man and the woman bring Hither, to our disgrace, A noisy and filthy thing. ' Hearing him groan and stretch The doll-maker's wife is aware Her husband has heard the wretch, And crouched by the arm of his chair, She murmurs into his ear, Head upon shoulder leant: "My dear, my dear, O dear. It was an accident. '