William Butler
William Butler
Multi-instrumentalist for the band Arcade Fire who plays bass, synth, guitar, and percussion. He has also worked on movie soundtracks, like the one for Her.
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth6 October 1982
man
A man who does not exist,A man who is but a dream.
black broken god great passing time-and-time-management tread
The years like great black oxen tread the world, and God the herdsman treads them on behind, and I am broken by their passing feet.
compelled feels imagine lost melancholy passing souls streets walk
This melancholy London- I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.
city holy sailed seas therefore
And therefore I have sailed the seas and comeTo the holy city of Byzantium.
broken burning roof shudder
A shudder in the loins engenders thereThe broken wall, the burning roof and towerAnd Agamemnon dead.
love mansion proud sole woman
A woman can be proud and stiffWhen on love intent;But Love has pitched his mansion inThe place of excrement;For nothing can be sole or wholeThat has not been rent.
adopted escape mask therefore
Style, personality -- deliberately adopted and therefore a mask -- is the only escape from the hot-faced bargainers and money-changers.
cover last running sand shall underneath
Speak, speak, for underneath the cover thereThe sand is running from the upper glass,And when the last grain's through, I shall be lost.
cover last running sand shall underneath
Speak, speak, for underneath the cover there The sand is running from the upper glass, And when the last grain's through, I shall be lost.
cannot charm charming face form grass lovely mountain three
One had a lovely face, and two or three had charm, but charm and face were in vain. Because the mountain grass cannot keep the form where the mountain hare has lain.
awaits dread dying hope hoping man nor
Nor dread nor hope attendA dying animal;A man awaits his endDreading and hoping all.
cheering duty nor public
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,Nor public men, nor cheering crowds.
begins friends-or-friendship glory mans
Think where mans glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.
common express man wise
Think like a wise man but express yourself like the common people.