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
beggar beggars cannon changed goes horseback lashes places revolution
Hurrah for revolution and more cannon-shot!A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot,Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!The beggars have changed places but the lash goes on.
joy periods sustained temporary
he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.'
beings clearer gather life minds moment perhaps
we can make our minds so still like water. That beings gather about us to see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer perhaps even with a fiercer life because of silence.
against alone believe candle master mind mothers spoke took
What do you think of when alone at night?Do not the things your mothers spoke about,Before they took the candle from the bedside,Rush up into the mind and master it,Till you believe in them against your will?
ambitious among choose dizzy flowering high life rains rich shape surely though until whatever
Surely among a rich man's flowering lawns,Amid the rustle of his planted hills,Life overflows without ambitious pains;And rains down life until the basin spills,And mounts more dizzy high the more it rainsAs though to choose whatever shape it wills. . . .
bone created death knows
He knows death to the bone --Man has created death.
against children close dream great half loosen pride shall song spoken weigh
Half close your eyelids, loosen your hair,And dream about the great and their pride;They have spoken against you everywhere,But weigh this song with the great and their pride;I made it out of a mouthful of air,Their children's children shall say they have lied.
balloon bellies narrow
Hands, do what you're bid;Bring the balloon of the mindThat bellies and drags in the windInto its narrow shed.
dream rightly whatever
Well, to see rightly is the whole of wisdom, whatever dream be with us.
brutal fed grown heart
We had fed the heart on fantasies,The heart's grown brutal from the fare.
fire mould
I would mould a world of fire and dew.
blest cast flows great laugh sweetness
When such as I cast out remorseSo great a sweetness flows into the breastWe must laugh and we must sing,We are blest by everything,Everything we look upon is blest.
die grass grows heavenly lonely opened rust school since soul threshold
You have to die because no soul has passedThe heavenly threshold since you have opened school,But grass grows there, and rust upon the hinge;And they are lonely that must keep the watch.
die grow love mouth shall truth wine
Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die