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William Butler Yeats used symbols prominently

in his poetry. This stemmed in part from the

inuence of William Blake, whom Yeats

admired and studied and who had developed

an extensive system of symbols himself. Yeats

was no mere imitator, however. He used

symbols toward incredibly ambitious ends to

reconcile binaries in pursuit of a unity of bein!.

Rose

Yeats wrote a series of rose poems, includin!

"To the #ose $pon the #ood of Time,% "The

&ecret #ose,% "The #ose Tree% and "The #ose

of the World.% 'or Yeats, the ower reconciles

the binary of temporal and eternal. (t uni)es

these concepts in two ways. 'irst, the rose

maintains its position as a representative or

touchstone of beauty unwaverin!ly. (n other

words, roses never !o out of fashion. However,an actual individual rose lives *uite a short life.

&imilarly, the rose symboli+es woman, both

divine, transcendent woman and natural,

sensual woman, and in doin! so, uni)es them.

Stone

$nlike the rose, the stone symbol does not

unify opposed concepts. The stones dualism

comes from the fact that the *ualities it

represents -- solidity, steadiness -- may be

positive or ne!ative. The stones immovabilitymay indicate stren!th or stubbornness. s a

result, stones often )!ure in poems in which

Yeats !rapples with his ambivalence about

(relands political climate. (n "/aster 0102,%

Yeats describes a stone in a rapidly owin!

river. (n the ima!e, the stone participates in a

dualism3 while the stone never moves, the

water never rests. The stone never bends3 the

water constantly chan!es shape to ow aroundany obstacles.

Gyre

Yeats ima!ined time not as a line, but as a

spiral. (n some poems the spiral appears as a

windin! staircase, but the poets favorite

ima!e was a !yre. 4yres are sewin! tools that

have inverted conical shapes, like that of a

tornado. s a symbol, the !yre characteri+es

history as both pro!ressive and repetitive.

Yeats most famous reference to the !yreoccurs in "The &econd 5omin!% "Turnin! and

turnin! in the widenin! !yre 6 The falcon

cannot hear the falconer.% (n this poem, the

disinte!ration of the !yre si!nals the end of

time.

Water

Water7s si!ni)cance di8ers between poems.

Yeats sometimes uses it to represent another

world and devotes his attention to species that

are able to move in and out of water dolphins,

which breathe air, and swans that both y and

swim. Yeats places this movement between

water and air parallel to movement between

life and death. (n both "The Wild &wans at

5oole% and "By+antium,% the speaker is a tired,

a!ed man who is in awe of the immortality of

the water-dwellin! creatures. While 5oole 9ark

is an actual place, the sea beside By+antium is

ima!ined by Yeats, and the two poems

symbols di8er accordin!ly. The swans, !lidin!

on actual waters, represent the eternity ofnature. The dolphins, swimmin! in an ima!ined

sea, allude to the #oman myth that dolphins

carried souls to the afterlife.

William Butler Yeats, an (rish poet, wrote :The

&econd 5omin!: in 0101 at the close of World

War (. (t7s a violent and mesmeri+in! poem that

outlines the end of an era and a comin!, !reat

destruction. (ts symbolism lar!ely centers

around destruction and rebirth, and most

analyses of the poem stem from these types of symbols.

The Gyre

Yeats opens :The &econd 5omin!: with an

ima!e of a falcon escapin! the falconer,

swin!in! outward in a :widenin! !yre: -- a

term Yeats coined to describe a circular path or

pattern. s the falcon ies in !reat arcs away

from the falconer, so the world spins out of

control. The :!yre: was Yeats7 symbol of ahuman epoch of ;,<<< years. The poem frames

a ;,<<<-year historical pro!ression, with the

birth of 5hrist markin! the be!innin! and the

war markin! the end.

The Tide

The remainder of the )rst stan+a, after the

:widenin! !yre,: deals with symbols of

destruction and death. :Thin!s fall apart,: says

Yeats, and :=ere anarchy is loosed upon the

world.: He uses the symbol of a tide, :blood-dimmed,: drownin! innocence, that destroys

hope and from which humanity needs

salvation.



The Second Coming

Yeats introduces the symbol of the second

comin! in the second stan+a, which is used as

an answer to the )rst. The destruction of the

)rst stan+a must stand for somethin!, and

Yeats sees it as heraldin! a new epoch, or

!yre. Yeats draws on the lan!ua!e of the Book

of #evelation to con>ure an ima!e of 5hrist7s

return. He further included biblical symbolism

when explainin! that for ;,<<< years ?one

!yre@, the sleep of the &phinx was :vexed to

ni!htmare by a rockin! cradle,: presumably of

the 5hrist-child.

The Sphinx

s soon as Yeats introduces the idea of a

&econd 5omin! as salvation, he uses his most

powerful symbol -- the &phinx -- to o8er his

prediction of the future of the world and ofhumanity. s soon as he alludes to 5hrist, a

:vast ima!e: of a pa!an reli!ion appears to

wander toward Bethlehem. The symbol here is

of the end of a reli!ion that, for Yeats,

embodied hope and innocence. (ts power is

!one, and the hour of the :rou!h beast: -- the

&phinx, an allusion to pre-5hristian reli!ion --

has come around a!ain.

TH/=/&

The speaker is busy lookin! back to hisyouthful days of yonder in :Aown by the &alley

4ardens,: so we know we7re dealin! with some

ideas related to memory and the past. &ince

the ballad is about youn! love and all of the

advice kids never take ?come on, kids@, the

speaker7s past serves as a lesson to be learned

for those who mi!ht )nd themselves in similar

situations. But he7s not actin! hi!h and mi!hty

about what he learned. ope, in fact he soundspretty honest about how foolish he was. t the

same time, we may come to reco!ni+e that the

speaker7s stru!!le is >ust part of !rowin! up.

His lookin! to the past reminds him of how

much he7s actually come to learn about

himself, so maybe it was worth bein! an epic

fail.

Cove is one of those thin!s that can be the

most ama+in! part of life when thin!s are!oin! well and also the tou!hest when thin!s

!o bad. :Aown by the &alley 4ardens: !ives us

a perfect scenario of the pictures*ue

circumstances of love that are *uickly

countered by the less attractive conse*uences

of heartbreak. Bein! youn! and foolish doesn7t

help matters much either. s simple as love

mi!ht seem with weepin! willows and &now

White runnin! around, love can still make you

end up bawlin! your eyes out in a public park.

The speaker of :Aown in the &alley 4ardens:

makes youn! love out to be a kind of fairytale

nestled in willow trees and pretty rivers. ll

that7s missin! are the rainbows and unicorns.

But then reality rears its u!ly head as he !ets

too pushy, which inevitably lands him in a pool

of his own tearsDsad. &till, it7s all part of bein!

youn! and learnin! some tou!h lessons that

help us to !row up. /very youn! person at

some time has to take a trip on the pain train.

ext stop adulthoodDand wisdom.&$==#Y

The poem opens with the speaker meetin! his

love down by the salley !ardens ?wherever

those may beDit7s not clari)ed in the poem@.

&he tells him to take love easy like the leaves

!rowin! on the trees. But, since the speaker is

youn! and foolish, he doesn7t listen to her and

pretty much blows her o8. Cater, the two are

han!in! out by a river and this time the !irl

with snow-white hands tells him to take lifeeasy. But a!ain, the speaker is youn! and

foolish, and ends up full of tears after not

takin! the youn! !irl7s advice. &ad times.

&$==#

&tan+a 0 &ummary 9a!e 0

4et out the microscope, because were !oin!

throu!h this poem line-by-line.

Cines 0-;

Aown by the salley !ardensmy love and ( did meet3

'irst thin!s )rst, &hmoopers. Eust what in the

wide, wide world of sports is a :salley !arden:F

Well, we7re happy you asked.

The word :salley: is translated from its ori!inal

4aelic ?saileach@ as a kind of willow tree. &o

the :salley !ardens: we see here refers to a

kind of !arden with lots of willow trees. ?Here7s

a photo of a pretty one.@ They7re also pretty

common in (reland, and we know Yeats wrote alot about all thin!s (rish.

Here, the speaker meets his love in a !arden

surrounded by willow trees. (t7s a pretty typical

romantic settin!, so we7re already feelin! the



status *uo vibe of a typical ballad.

otice too that the speaker is usin! a )rst-

person point of view, so the romantic vibe is

felt even more since the poem sounds as if it7s

comin! strai!ht from the speaker7s heart.

5heck out our :&peaker: section for more.

Cines G-

&he passed the salley !ardens

with little snow-white feet.

(f the willow trees didn7t convince you that

we7re dealin! with a typical ballad with

romantic ima!ery, then the !irl7s :little snow-

white feet: certainly will.

Here the speaker7s love is passin! throu!h the

!ardens lookin! pure, petite, and romantic.

otice the perfect end rhyme we have too, in

lines ; and :meet: and :feet.: Ballads

usually always work with perfect rhymes, soour speaker is keepin! with the tradition.

We can also say a little bit about the kind of

meter we7re seein! so far. (t seems the speaker

is usin! a kind of iambic trimeter with the

occasional variant thrown in now and then.

Hear that daA$= daA$= daA$= pattern,

especially in the even-numbered linesF That

means we have an unstressed syllable

followed by a stressed syllable the combine a

total of three times for every line. This kind of meter makes for a very catchy rhythm that

sounds predictable, and is therefore easy to

remember.

5heck out our :'orm and =eter: section for

more on how this poem is put to!ether.

Cines I-2

&he bid me take love easy,

as the leaves !row on the tree3

ow we !et a bit of wisdom that the !irl islookin! to impart she tells the speaker to take

love easy or, in other words, don7t rush thin!s

so much. Be like the leaves on the tree that

take their time to !row.

We have a nice little simile here to help

illustrate the !irl7s advice. nd since we7re

dealin! with some more romantic, natural

ima!ery with trees and such, we notice that

the speaker is keepin! thin!s pretty consistent

in terms of settin!.We wonder if these lush surroundin!s will

inspire our speaker to take the !irl7s advice.

Cet7s read on, !an!.

Cines J-K

But (, bein! youn! and foolish,

with her would not a!ree.

By the time we !et to the end of the )rst

stan+a, we reali+e that the speaker is tellin!

his story in retrospect, lookin! back. We !et

the feelin! that the speaker is si!ni)cantly

older than the youn! man we see in the poem,

especially since he tells us here that these

were the days when he was :youn! and

foolish.:

nd why is he foolishF We7re assumin! he

didn7t take his youn! lover7s advice and

probably rushed thin!s in their relationship.

=aybe the !irl !ot scared, or maybe she fell in

love with someone less pushy. Who knowsF

&o we7re dealin! with a speaker who7s lookin!

back on his youn!, foolish, pushy

misadventures. 9erhaps now he7s !ot somewisdom after bein! such an epic fail at

relationships. 5heck out our :Themes: section

for more on his lessons learned.

This essay or poetry analysis of LAown by the

&alley 4ardens by W B Yeats is mainly

concerned with the theme of love and with the

musicality of the style.The theme of love is

free and easy in its delivery, yet the poets

own feelin!s are not. He feels much lesscarefree about romance and feelin!s by the

end of his poem than he seems to at the

be!innin!

LAown by the salley !ardens my love and ( did

meet3

&he passed the salley !ardens with little

snow-white feet.

nd perhaps continues to feel a little more

cynical and de>ected about lovin! relationships

as his life pro!resses. Yeats describes how his

love passes the Lsalley !ardens in an easy

style. Here he is usin! an old (rish word for

Lwillow which reects both his love for the

culture of his country and his interest in its folk

music. &tories abound that he overheard an

old woman Lcroonin! or Lkeenin! a few similar

lines in a remote part of the countryside andthat he may have wanted to preserve them.

He seems to be attemptin! to recreate the

tune in an attempt to keep six similar beats.

He chan!es it fre*uently, but still keeps to a



)rm structure

L&he bid me take love easy, as the leaves !row

on the tree3

But (, bein! youn! and foolish, with her would

not a!ree. L

Yeats seems to describe a suitor whose

attitude to love is heavy and deep, compared

to his sweetheart who is more li!ht-hearted

and carefree about the whole love thin!. The

punctuation varies the poem with stops and

starts here.

L (n a )eld by the river my love and ( did stand,

nd on my leanin! shoulder she laid her snow-

white hand. L

The poets use of the word Lleanin! su!!eststhat it is the !irl who has the upper hand and

is comfortin! the speaker. The emphasis on the

word Lwhite reminds readers of youth and

innocence. Her free and easy attitude to love is

repeated

L&he bid me take life easy, as the !rass !rows

on the weirs3

But ( was youn! and foolish, and now am full

of tears.

But W B Yeats does not seem to have listenedto her advice to keep love li!ht and carefree

like the poem. By the end of this folk son!

piece, his use of the past tense tells the

reader that his >oyful early experiences of love

are far behind him, and his heavy attitude has

not led to happiness in relationships in old a!e.

"The Cake (sle of (nnisfree%

Summary

The poet declares that he will arise and !o to

(nnisfree, where he will build a small cabin "of

clay and wattles made.% There, he will have

nine bean-rows and a beehive, and live alone

in the !lade loud with the sound of bees ?"the

bee-loud !lade%@. He says that he will have

peace there, for peace drops from "the veils of

mornin! to where the cricket sin!s.% =idni!ht

there is a !limmer, and noon is a purple !low,

and evenin! is full of linnets win!s. Hedeclares a!ain that he will arise and !o, for

always, ni!ht and day, he hears the lake water

lappin! "with low sounds by the shore.% While

he stands in the city, "on the roadway, or on

the pavements !rey,% he hears the sound

within himself, "in the deep hearts core.%

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Summary

Yeats expresses his desire to build a small

cabin at (nnisfree, out of natural materials, and

live alone.

He will )nd peace on the lake, where it drops

from the mornin!, and the beautiful midni!ht.

He determines to leave immediately, because

even when he stands in a road or on a city

pavement, he hears the lappin! of the lake

waters in his heart.

Analysis

Yeats7s profession of love for nature is one of

his most famous and beautiful poems. (t is

unusual in this collection as it contains no

references to the (rish nationalist movement,

to =aude 4onne, or to ancient (rish mytholo!y.

Yeats )rst wrote the poem in Condon, in 0K1<,

where he was feelin! intensely homesick.

(nnisfree, whose name means :heather island:

in 4aelic, is an island o8 the coast of (reland of

intense natural beauty. (t is located in 5ounty

&li!o, which is where Yeats7s mother7s family

came from, and which he identi)ed as the part

of (reland and the world closest to his heart. (n

the idea of buildin! a home there and livin! as

a hermit, Yeats was inuenced by merican

transcendentalists such as Thoreau. He wrote

in a letter :=y father read to me some

passa!e out of Walden, and ( planned to live

some day in a cotta!e on a little island called(nnisfree.:

Analysis of W. B. Yeats' great early poem "The

Tale of Wandering Aengus", a beatiful and

romantic, but mysterious, work.

"The &on! of Wanderin! en!us%, from W.B.

Yeats 0K11 collection, The Wind Among the

eeds, is one of the best known of the obel

pri+e-winnin! poets early works. Cike much of

Yeatss work from this time, it draws heavily on

(rish mytholo!y, inextricably mixed with more

personal themes from the poets life.





in so much mytholo!y and literature. What the

hero seeks is elusive and there is no lo!ical

reason to believe he will )nd it, but he

continues to have faith, and this faith !ives his

life meanin!.

The popularity of this poem is attested to by

the number of times it has been set to music,

by artists such as Eudy 5ollins, #ichie Havens,Aonovan and 5hristy =oore.

:o &econd Troy: plays out throu!h four

rhetorical *uestions.

'irst, the speaker wonders :why: he should

blame :her: for his unhappiness and for her

reckless manipulation of the emotions of (rish

commoners to rouse political violence.

Then he asks whether it would even have been

possible for :her: to be a :peaceful: person. He

thinks her character and beauty have an old-

school *uality, more like a )!ure from 4reek

tra!edy than a contemporary woman. &he

belon!s to another a!e.

&he could not have been anythin! other than

what she is. &imple enou!h.

Cast, because there was no :second Troy: forher to destroy, she had to destroy other thin!s

N like the speaker7s happiness, and the lives of

(rish commoners. The )rst Troy, of course, was

destroyed because of a *uarrel over Helen,

another politically troublesome beauty from

another :a!e: ancient 4reece.

#hetorical Ouestions

&ymbol nalysis

:o &econd Troy: is structured around four

di8erent rhetorical *uestions. These are

*uestions the poet does not need or intend to

answer. He probably already knows the

answers. (t7s like when you ask yourself, :Why

should ( study for the test tomorrowF ( already

know the material.: You also already know

you7re not !oin! to study3 you7re >ust >ustifyin!

your decision to yourself. (n this poem, the

speaker wonders why he should blame :her:?=aud 4onne N see :(n a utshell:@ for causin!

so many problems for him and his country. The

*uestions make it seem like he doesn7t blame

her, but we suspect he does...

Cines 0-I The purpose of the )rst rhetorical

question is to lay out all of the char!es

a!ainst 4onne. (t7s >ust an excuse to point out

that she broke Yeats7s heart and tried to stir

unrest in (reland.

Cines 2-0< The second rhetorical question is

an excuse to talk about how !reat 4onne is,

how beautiful, noble, and powerful.

Cine 00 The third rhetorical question sums

up what the poet has been sayin! so far, that

she is who she is. How philosophical of you,

Yeats.

Cine 0; The last rhetorical question delivers

the punch line =aud is as troublesome as

Helen of Troy, and she would burn down a city

if she couldP

ncient 4reece

&ymbol nalysis

Yeats had a very mytholo!ical and historical

mind. He thou!ht that history moved in cycles

from more orderly to more chaotic periods. (n

poems like : The &econd 5omin!,: he

expressed his belief that society was movin!

toward a more chaotic period. =aud 4onne,however, is a paradox to him she seems to

come out of a more :noble: and aristocratic

a!e, and yet she causes chaos N not least in

his own life. He tries to make sense of her

presence in this poem by comparin! her

to Helen of Troy, a beautiful woman whose

illicit love is said to have provoked the Tro>an

War.

Cine J (n this line, )re is a symbol of aprimitive force of destruction. 'ire is also what

destroyed Troy, a point that will develop in line

0;.

Cines K-0< This simile compares =aud7s

beauty to a :ti!htened bow.: bow is a simple

and !raceful weapon, but the :ti!htened:

strin! of the bow contains enormous power

and ener!y. lso, bows and arrows allude to an

earlier period in history, probably ancient

4reece

http://www.shmoop.com/second-coming/

http://www.shmoop.com/iliad/helen.html

http://www.shmoop.com/second-coming/

http://www.shmoop.com/iliad/helen.html



Cine 0; ?and Title@ The poem centers on a

historical allusion, a metaphor comparin!

=aud 4onne with Helen of Troy, and =aud7s

destructive tendencies with the destruction of

Troy.

5lass 5onict

&ymbol nalysis

Yeats was a conservative who valued order andtradition. =aud 4onne was a radical who !rew

out of the traditional (rish society he loved.

He7s like, :You7re one of usP You should know

better than to stir up all those commonersP: He

uses ima!es that serve to place her within a

traditional herita!e.

Cine G The :i!norant men: he speaks of

represent the uneducated commoners that

=aud, an educated actress, tried to inspire

with revolutionary fervor.

Cine :Cittle streets: and :!reat streets: is an

example of metonymy. Think of the way the

word :crown: stands for royalty, like how we

say, :The /n!lish crown.: The :little streets:

stand for the lower classes, while the :!reat

streets: stand for the wealthy and powerful.

The ima!e of throwin! ?:hurlin!:@ the little onthe !reat represents how =aud tried to incite

the powerless to rise a!ainst the powerful

British.

Cine J lthou!h =aud 4onne was a radical,

Yeats points out that she has a :noble: or

hi!hborn appearance. He compares her

nobility to )re, usin! simile.

/aster 0102

Yeats starts the poem o8 by talkin! about the

dudes he runs into in the street when the

shops and oQces are closin! up around Aublin.

He basically makes super)cial small talk with

them, sayin! :polite meanin!less words: ?2@.

nd every now and then, he7ll tell a funny story

that mi!ht !et a lau!h at the bar. But he

doesn7t really value his interactions with any of

these people. &o yeahDdude7s a bit of a

snooty >erk.

ext, Yeats breaks o8 and starts !oin! throu!h

a list of all the people who were involved with

the /aster $prisin! of 0102. He mentions a

woman who helped out with the e8ort, alon!

with some other !uys who mi!ht have had

bri!ht futures if they hadn7t !otten themselves

executed for treason. Mne !uy was even

responsible for hurtin! people close to Yeats,

and Yeats didn7t think much of him. But still,

Yeats is !ettin! a little uncertain about his

superiority, and is startin! to wonder if these

people he7s mentionin! mi!ht actually be

heroes.

s he continues, Yeats compares these )!hters

and their unchan!in! dedication to a rock that

sittin! at the bottom of a stream. The stream

and the nature around it keep chan!in!, but

the stone remains unmoved. t the end of the

day, Yeats isn7t sure how much he admires the

people he7s talkin! about. But he de)nitely has

learned to respect them and the sacri)ce they

made for somethin! they believed in.

Yeats closes the poem by repeatin! the phrase

: terrible beauty is born,: which he7s

mentioned several times in the poem.

Basically, this phrase closes the poem by

su!!estin! that even thou!h the deaths of the

/aster $prisin! are terrible, history tends to

remember bloody battles and self-sacri)ce

more than anythin! else. &o with re!ards tobein! remembered, there7s kind of a terrible

beauty in the death that came out of /aster,

0102.

&ymbol nalysis

'rom the start of the poem, Yeats is pretty up

front about the fact that he makes a lot of

meanin!less small talk with the people he runs

into on the streets of Aublin. He even repeats

the exact same phrase, :9olite meanin!lesswords: to talk about how borin! and repetitive

this process can be for him. But hey, the dude

has to act polite, even if he7s bein! totally

phony.

Cines I-2 Yeats says that he has passed

people leavin! their workplaces with a :nod of

the head 6 Mr polite meanin!less words.:

Basically, everyone in Aublin would have

known Yeats because he was a celebrity. nd

he7s happy to say hi, but doesn7t really care

about these people or what they have to say to

him. ice.



Cines J-K Yeats doesn7t always pass people

with a nod of the head, thou!h. &ometimes,

he7ll even !o so far as to :lin!eRrS awhile: and

say more :9olite meanin!less words.: &o

basically, whether Yeats stops to talk to you or

not, his words are still !oin! to be totally

meanin!less, like :Hey, how 7bout them

YankeesF: Mr whatever the (rish e*uivalent is

Cines 1-0; nd if he really, really wants to put

in the e8ort, Yeats will even think of a funny

:mockin! tale: that will entertain people

:round the )re at a club.: &o yeah, he7ll tell a

funny story now and then. But it7s still totally

meanin!less to him. That is until everythin!

!ets :chan!ed utterly: by the /aster $prisin!.

Then Yeats reali+es he mi!ht have to take

these folks more seriously.

Terrible Beauty

&ymbol nalysis

Three times in the poem, Yeats ends a stan+a

with the phrase, : terrible beauty is born.: He

even ends the poem with it, which should set

o8 our spidey sense and tell us that it7s

probably an important phrase.

Whenever he talks about terrible beauty, Yeats

seems to be tryin! to brin! to!ether the

di8erent ?even contradictory@ emotions he

feels when he thinks about the (rish $prisin! of

/aster, 0102. Mn the one hand, the $prisin! is

beautiful because it7ll !o down in history as a

!reat )!ht for (rish freedom. Mn the other

hand, a whole bunch of people died. The

phrase :terrible beauty: seems to be Yeats7s

way of sayin! that history7s most celebrated

moments are usually moments of death.

little dark, but kind of true.

Cines 0I-02 &o far, Yeats has been !oin! on

about how he doesn7t really care about his run-

ins with the common folk of Aublin. But in lines

0I and 02, he says that everythin! is suddenly

:chan!ed, chan!ed utterly: and that : terrible

beauty is born.: 9eople who understand thereference to the /aster $prisin! in the poem7s

title no doubt understand how everyday life

would have chan!ed when the )!htin! started.

But at this point, we7re still not sure what Yeats

)nds particularly beautiful about this. We7ll

have to wait for our answer.

Cine < fter talkin! about a bunch of people

who died in the /aster $prisin! ?or were

executed later@, Yeats repeats the phrase, :

terrible beauty is born.: !ain, it7s kind of hard

to tell what7s so beautiful about all these

people dyin!. But by this point, Yeats is sort of!ettin! at the idea that these people are !oin!

to be remembered for the brave thin!s they

did, and there mi!ht be somethin! beautiful in

that.

Cines J1-K< By the end of this poem, we7re

startin! to !et a clear picture of what Yeats has

meant when he7s said, : terrible beauty is

born: throu!hout this poem. He7s sayin! that

in the future, the people of (reland will

remember those who fou!ht for (rish freedom.

nd on top of that, Yeats is remindin! us that

all of the bi! historical moments we tend to

consider meanin!ful or :beautiful: tend to be

moments when a ton of people died ?merican

#evolution, anyoneF@.

The Aead 'i!hters

&ymbol nalysisAurin! the second stan+a of this poem, Yeats

!oes throu!h a short list of some of the people

he knew who fou!ht in the /aster $prisin! and

who were either >ailed for life or executed. (t7s

not totally clear whether he admires them or

doesn7t care about them. But one thin! for

sure is that he feels like he needs to write

about them, even if he isn7t sure why.

Cines 0J-;G Yeats mentions a woman whohelped with the $prisin!, and it7s likely he7s

talkin! about the 5ountess 5onstance

=arkievic+. But it7s not like he7s paintin! a

atterin! portrait of her. He basically says she

used to be beautiful, but now her days in

politics have made her voice shrill. Mh yeah,

and he says that her political life comes from a

sense of :i!norant !ood will.: &heesh, tell us

what you really think, Yeats.

Cines ;-G< Yeats !oes on to talk about some

dudes he seems to have had a bit more

respect for than the 5ountess. 'irst, he talks

http://www.shmoop.com/american-revolution/






about some !uy who founded a boys7 school,

and he7s probably talkin! here about a !uy

named 9adraic 9earse, who was also a poet.

Mn top of that, he mentions a !uy who helped

9earse, who is probably Thomas =acAona!h, a

poet and dramatist. Yeats even su!!ests that

=acAona!h could have been half decent if he

hadn7t !otten himself involved with the

uprisin!.

Cines G0-GI 'inally, Yeats mentions a !uy

whom he didn7t like at all. Basically, he found

this last !uy really cocky and rude. He7s no

doubt talkin! about a !uy named =a>or Eohn

=acBride, who was the husband of a woman

Yeats was in love with. &o yeah, Yeats had

some ulterior motives on this one. But still, he

admits that he wants to include =acBride in

the poem because like him or not, =acBride

!ave his life to the cause of (rish freedom.

Cines J-JJ t the end of the poem, Yeats

throws down the names of the dead )!hters

he7s been talkin! about in this poem. He7s not

sure if he totally a!rees with what they did, but

he can admit that they7ve done somethin! he

would never be capable of, which is die for a

political cause.

The &tone in the &tream

&ymbol nalysis

Yeats devotes the entire third stan+a of this

poem to talkin! about a stone that7s sittin! at

the bottom of a stream. But it becomes clear

pretty *uickly that he7s comparin! the stone to

the people who have !iven their lives in the

/aster $prisin!. 'or Yeats, there7s somethin!

interestin! in the fact that the (rish )!hters,like the stone, cannot be chan!ed or moved

even while the world chan!es around them.

Their passion for (rish independence is like a

stone, especially now that they7re dead.

They7re removed from the world of chan!e.

Here, Yeats mi!ht actually be showin! some

shame for the fact that he7s willin! to !o with

the ow as far as the world7s concerned.

Cines 0- Yeats su!!ests that the people

who fou!ht in the /aster $prisin! did so with

:one purpose alone 6 Throu!h summer and

winter.: (n other words, their sense of purpose

did not chan!e with the times. (t remained

constant and unmovin!. $ltimately, Yeats

compares this kind of unchan!in! dedication

to a stone that remains unchan!in! in a :livin!

stream.:

Cines II-I2 fter throwin! down a bunch of

descriptions of birds and horses runnin!

around the stream, Yeats reminds us that thesethin!s live :=inute by minute,: but the stone

stays the same :in the midst of all.: Here,

Yeats is comparin! the dedication of the

revolutionaries to the world around them that

>ust keep chan!in! with the times. But at the

end of that day, the )!hters have one more

thin! in common with the stoneDthey aren7t

alive. !ain, Yeats pulls back from the impulse

to totally celebrate these people as heroes.

The Man And The Echo-W.B Yeats

LThe =an and the /cho is from Yeats L'inal

9oem collection and was written in 01GK-

1. (t was one of Yeats last poems as the

profound poet died at the a!e of J in

01G1.

This hauntin! poem tells us of Yeats

ima!inary dialo! with his very own echoaskin! about life and death takin! place in

a mystical place. (n the poem, the echo

repeatedly su!!est Yeats to !ive up, yet

Yeats de)es this ne!ativity in a passionate

defense of the life of the mind. The echo

then !oes onto repeat its sense of futility.

Yeats ar!ues over the meanin! and

si!ni)cance of life and is interrupted by

the blind indi8erent world of nature andconse*uently can reach no conclusions.

LThe =an and the /cho is a profound

poem reectin! upon the !reat tra!edy of

death. (t is another presentation of the

drama of a human soul askin! !reat

*uestions and receivin! truth from only

partial answers.

The poem is partially atmospheric due to

its settin!. The poet is ima!inin! visitin! a

mystical place, only here the poet will

receive the answers to the !reat *uestions.

The poet at his secret place, never

touched by li!ht, will seem utterly alone



with his thou!hts. Yeats !oes throu!h a

seemin!ly )nal reckonin! with his soul.

The brevity of the lines create a intensity

and simple full rhymes which !ive the

poem its powerful atmosphere, chant like

feel. There is the *uality of an epitaph of

some of the words. The overwhelmin!

e8ect is of a man reachin! these dark

extremes of his own mind to )nd the limits

of his understandin!., however the echo

cannot !ive Yeats any independent

answers back. man in many ways can

only hear his own echo, a aUiction of his

own cravin!s, a mirror of his own !uilty

secrets, a bleak cold example of his

loneliness. The mere existence of two

voices, then met by a third voice-the world

of nature and its cries, that cuts mansdebate with himself, su!!estin! a reality

profoundly allusive and mysterious.

The theme of this poem is self-doubt. The

lan!ua!e used in this poem is the

lan!ua!e of plain talk. However it has a

slow and controlled pace created by the

meter of this poem. The strai!ht

forwardness of the lan!ua!e tells us Yeats

is tryin! to ob>ectify assess his past andlooks forward to his death.

"The Cove &on! of E. lfred 9rufrock%

Summary

This poem, the earliest of /liots ma>or works,

was completed in 010< or 0100 but not

published until 010I. (t is an examination of

the tortured psyche of the prototypical modern

manDovereducated, elo*uent, neurotic, andemotionally stilted. 9rufrock, the poems

speaker, seems to be addressin! a potential

lover, with whom he would like to "force the

moment to its crisis% by somehow

consummatin! their relationship. But 9rufrock

knows too much of life to "dare% an approach

to the woman (n his mind he hears the

comments others make about his

inade*uacies, and he chides himself for

"presumin!% emotional interaction could be

possible at all. The poem moves from a series

of fairly concrete ?for /liot@ physical settin!sDa

cityscape ?the famous "patient etherised upon

a table%@ and several interiors ?womens arms

in the lampli!ht, co8ee spoons, )replaces@Dto

a series of va!ue ocean ima!es conveyin!

9rufrocks emotional distance from the world

as he comes to reco!ni+e his second-rate

status ?"( am not 9rince Hamlet@. "9rufrock% is

powerful for its ran!e of intellectual reference

and also for the vividness of character

achieved.

Form

"9rufrock% is a variation on the dramatic

monolo!ue, a type of poem popular with /liots

predecessors. Aramatic monolo!ues are

similar to solilo*uies in plays. Three thin!s

characteri+e the dramatic monolo!ue,

accordin! to =.H. brams. 'irst, they are the

utterances of a speci)c individual ?not the

poet@ at a speci)c moment in time. &econdly,

the monolo!ue is speci)cally directed at a

listener or listeners whose presence is not

directly referenced but is merely su!!ested in

the speakers words. Third, the primary focus

is the development and revelation of the

speakers character. /liot moderni+es the form

by removin! the implied listeners and focusin!

on 9rufrocks interiority and isolation. The

epi!raph to this poem, fromAantes !nferno, describes 9rufrocks ideal

listener one who is as lost as the speaker and

will never betray to the world the content of

9rufrocks present confessions. (n the world

9rufrock describes, thou!h, no such

sympathetic )!ure exists, and he must,

therefore, be content with silent reection. (n

its focus on character and its dramatic

sensibility, "9rufrock% anticipates /liots later,

dramatic works.

The rhyme scheme of this poem is irre!ular

but not random. While sections of the poem

may resemble free verse, in reality, "9rufrock%

is a carefully structured amal!amation of

poetic forms. The bits and pieces of rhyme

become much more apparent when the poem

is read aloud. Mne of the most prominent

formal characteristics of this work is the use ofrefrains. 9rufrocks continual return to the

"women RwhoS come and !o 6 Talkin! of

=ichelan!elo% and his recurrent *uestionin!s

?"how should ( presumeF%@ and pessimistic



appraisals ?"That is not it, at all.%@ both

reference an earlier poetic tradition and help

/liot describe the consciousness of a modern,

neurotic individual. 9rufrocks obsessiveness is

aesthetic, but it is also a si!n of

compulsiveness and isolation. nother

important formal feature is the use of

fra!ments of sonnet form, particularly at the

poems conclusion. The three three-line

stan+as are rhymed as the conclusion of a

9etrarchan sonnet would be, but their

pessimistic, anti-romantic content, coupled

with the despairin! inter>ection, "( do not think

they ?the mermaids@ would sin! to me,%

creates a contrast that comments bitterly on

the bleakness of modernity.

Commentary

"9rufrock% displays the two most important

characteristics of /liots early poetry. 'irst, it is

stron!ly inuenced by the 'rench &ymbolists,

like =allarmV, #imbaud, and Baudelaire, whom

/liot had been readin! almost constantly while

writin! the poem. 'rom the &ymbolists, /liot

takes his sensuous lan!ua!e and eye for

unnervin! or anti-aesthetic detail that

nevertheless contributes to the overall beautyof the poem ?the yellow smoke and the hair-

covered arms of the women are two !ood

examples of this@. The &ymbolists, too,

privile!ed the same kind of individual /liot

creates with 9rufrock the moody, urban,

isolated-yet-sensitive thinker. However,

whereas the &ymbolists would have been more

likely to make their speaker himself a poet or

artist, /liot chooses to make 9rufrock an

unacknowled!ed poet, a sort of artist for the

common man.

The second de)nin! characteristic of this poem

is its use of fra!mentation and >uxtaposition.

/liot sustained his interest in fra!mentation

and its applications throu!hout his career, and

his use of the techni*ue chan!es in important

ways across his body of work Here, the

sub>ects under!oin! fra!mentation ?andreassembly@ are mental focus and certain sets

of ima!ery3 in The Waste and, it is modern

culture that splinters3 in the #our $uartets we

)nd the fra!ments of attempted philosophical

systems. /liots use of bits and pieces of

formal structure su!!ests that fra!mentation,

althou!h anxiety-provokin!, is nevertheless

productive3 had he chosen to write in free

verse, the poem would have seemed much

more nihilistic. The kinds of ima!ery /liot uses

also su!!est that somethin! new can be made

from the ruins The series of hypothetical

encounters at the poems center are iterated

and discontinuous but nevertheless lead to a

sort of epiphany ?albeit a dark one@ rather than

>ust leadin! nowhere. /liot also introduces an

ima!e that will recur in his later poetry, that of

the scaven!er. 9rufrock thinks that he "should

have been a pair of ra!!ed claws 6 &cuttlin!

across the oors of silent seas.% 5rabs are

scaven!ers, !arba!e-eaters who live o8 refuse

that makes its way to the sea oor. /liotsdiscussions of his own poetic techni*ue ?see

especially his essay "Tradition and the

(ndividual Talent%@ su!!est that makin!

somethin! beautiful out of the refuse of

modern life, as a crab sustains and nourishes

itself on !arba!e, may, in fact, be the hi!hest

form of art. t the very least, this notion

subverts romantic ideals about art3 at best, it

su!!ests that fra!ments may become

reinte!rated, that art may be in some waytherapeutic for a broken modern world. (n The

Waste and, crabs become rats, and the

optimism disappears, but here /liot seems to

assert only the limitless potential of

scaven!in!.

"9rufrock% ends with the hero assi!nin!

himself a role in one of &hakespeares plays

While he is no Hamlet, he may yet be usefuland important as "an attendant lord, one that

will do 6 To swell a pro!ress, start a scene or

two...% This implies that there is still a

continuity between &hakespeares world and

ours, that %amlet is still relevant to us and that

we are still part of a world that could produce

somethin! like &hakespeares plays. (mplicit in

this, of course, is the su!!estion that /liot, who

has created an "attendant lord,% may now !o

on to create another Hamlet. While "9rufrock%ends with a devaluation of its hero, it exalts its

creator. Mr does itF The last line of the poem

su!!ests otherwiseDthat when the world

intrudes, when "human voices wake us,% the



dream is shattered "we drown.% With this

sin!le line, /liot dismantles the romantic

notion that poetic !enius is all that is needed

to triumph over the destructive, impersonal

forces of the modern world. (n reality, /liot the

poet is little better than his creation He di8ers

from 9rufrock only by retainin! a bit of hubris,

which shows throu!h from time to time. /liots

poetic creation, thus, mirrors 9rufrocks

solilo*uy Both are an expression of aesthetic

ability and sensitivity that seems to have no

place in the modern world. This realistic, anti-

romantic outlook sets the sta!e for /liots later

works, includin! The Waste and.

Summary

relude !

• (n this short poem, a hidden observer

describes dusk on a winters evenin! in

a poor part of a city.

• The observer is outside, observin! the

appearance and atmosphere of a street

and nei!hbourhood.

• 9ossibly the observer who describes the

scene is /liot himself. Mr it may be the

cab driver. 9erhaps /liot is observin! astreet prostitute, the Lyou of the poem,

as she stands on the pavement amon!

the withered leaves.

• (t mi!ht be helpful to re!ard this poem,

like the others, as a video post-card of

this moment, six oclock on the winters

evenin!. /liot used words as his way of

paintin! the picture.

• The time is pinpointed at 2 oclock

precisely.

• #esidents, livin! probably in one-roomed

apartments, are cookin! their evenin!

meal all at the same time. They are

probably all workers livin! in ats. The

word Lpassa!eways su!!ests the

houses have been turned into ats for

rent. /ven thou!h it seems a run-down

part of town, the residents can a8ord

steak.• By linkin! the scene here with the Lstale

smells of beer and Ldin!y shades in

furnished rooms of L9relude (( and the

Lthousand sordid ima!es of L9relude (((,

one could assume that the 9reludes are

set in a red-li!ht district of a city.

• The smell of steak is a si!nal that day is

done and ni!ht is be!innin!. Because of

city smoke the day is described as

smoky. =aybe the smoke occurs

because people are cookin! at the same

time. The tiredness of the workers is

su!!ested by the word Lburnt-out. Mr is

there a humorous su!!estion that they

over cook the steaksF

• The weather is bad3 a windy shower

beats on the buildin!s and on the horse

outside. The cold rain evaporates as

steam o8 the horses back.

• (t is early winter as the autumn leaves

are still on the !round. The )lth of the

place is revealed by the phrase L!rimyscraps.

• The street is untidy as newspapers are

blown around the place.

• There are many empty or vacant spaces

without a buildin! on the street.

• The details show that the street is

rundown as the word Lbroken is used to

describe the window-blinds.

• The buildin!s are probably three or four

storey houses rather than factories asthe observer refers to the chimney pots.

(n L9relude ( the observer refers to the

houses as bein! in blocks.

• The means of transport is by cab-horse.

mysterious visitor to a house makes

the cab-horse wait. (t seems to stamp its

feet to beat o8 the cold or its boredom.

The horse is lonely.

•

We are !iven no clue about the mysteryvisitor. The poem invites us to !uess for

ourselves who the visitor mi!ht be.

9erhaps he is a client of the woman with

yellow feet in L9relude (((, a woman

whose hand raised a Ldin!y shade in

L9relude ((. =i!ht he be visitin! a

prostituteF Mr has he called to eat a

steakF

• The only other event noted by the

observer is the turnin! on of thestreetli!hts or lamps. (n other words, not

much is happenin! outside.

relude !!



• (n this short poem the observer

describes the early mornin! scene on a

street as workers dash for a *uick co8ee

on the way to their >ob.

• The observer is outside, observin! the

appearance and atmosphere of a street

and nei!hbourhood.

• The muddy feet su!!est a poorer

nei!hbourhood of &t. Couis, where /liot

!rew up.

• There are probably some public houses

on the street. They would account for

the sli!ht odour of beer and the

sawdust. 'loors of cheap pubs would

have had sawdust on their oor to dry

up mud and spilt beer.

• The observer says that mornin! time

causes Lmas*uerades to start up a!ain.L=as*uerades are pretences, tricks or

false actions put on for show.

• Thus, as he observes shades bein! lifted

on various street-facin! windows, he

thinks of the secret lives that will be

hidden in the dayli!ht by so called

normal behaviour. The din!y hands are

probably the same soiled hands that

hold yellow feet in L9relude (((.

• 9erhaps the observer thinks a lot ofpeople show o8 and do not reveal their

true selves in public. They act

innocently as they head for the co8ee

stands, even thou!h they mi!ht have

been drunk with a prostitute under

cover of darkness the ni!ht before.

• /liot su!!ests that the truth may lie in

up to a thousand )lthy one room

apartments where the prostitutes thatserved the previous ni!hts clients are

also wakin! up and lettin! the shades

up.

relude !!!

• The observer addresses a LyouD

perhaps the Lyou whose feet were

surrounded by L!rimy scraps as she

stood on the pavement in L9relude (.• The observer is inside, observin! the

appearance and atmosphere of a room

and its occupant.

• The action of tossin! a blanket from the

bed and waitin! has a stron! sexual

su!!estion about it.

• This idea is stren!thened with the

reference to a Lthousand sordid ima!es.

The word Lthousand echoes the

furnished rooms of L9relude ((. The

persons soul is made up of a thousand

dirty picturesDperhaps of clients who

undressed while she tossed the blanket

and waited.

• The person in the room may be livin! in

a personal hell. The fact that the

pictures in her head Lickered su!!ests

ames, and in turn hell. Aurin! the ni!ht

the world left her and returned at dawn.

• The li!ht creeps back to her dark world.

&parrows in the water chutes are the)rst normal sounds she hears. (t is as if

her room at ni!ht had become a room in

hell. t dawn everythin! seems normal

a!ain. (n L9relude (( /liot had su!!ested

that people put on false shows after the

shades went up.

• The observer ima!ines she has an

insi!ht into or awareness of the street

which is di8erent than others have.

9erhaps she knows secrets that some ofthe crowd rushin! for co8ee dont

suspect, secrets that others in that

crowd hide.

• &he removes the paper curlers from her

hair. re these made from some of the

same old newspapers that apped

around the pavement in L9relude (F (s

she preparin! to keep up appearances

for her work later that evenin!F 9erhapsshe has nothin! to do till ni!htfall. This

is su!!ested by the idle !esture of

claspin! her feet. This !esture also

betrays her dissatisfaction with her life.

• The fact that her hands are soiled may

be a reference to the newsprint on the

curlin! papers blackenin! her hands, to

her !eneral lack of hy!iene or to some

dirty deeds that happened in the ni!ht.

relude !"

• (n this short poem, a hidden observer

describes a winters afternoon on a city



street when it is busy. We know this

because the sky fades and crowds move

ur!ently alon! city blocks. (s it the same

street mentioned in previous preludes or

is it in the commercial districtF

• The observer is outside, observin! a

passin! crowd on the street. He may

also be observin! a sin!le man who is

su8erin! somewhat.• This man may be a street be!!ar who is

bein! i!nored by the passin! crowd. The

patch of sky visible between city blocks

represents this mans soul. The soul

may also be the spirit of the city or of

5hrist.

• His soul is fadin! with the li!ht of day.

He is i!nored and walked upon by the

busy passers by. &ome of them carry theevenin! newspaper home with them.

&ome of the crowd are pipe-smokin!

men, whose only thou!ht >ust then is

focused on their pipes. Their eyes show

that they have )xed views. They are full

of simple certainties.

• &ome of them may be the clients of the

red li!ht district, whose lives are a lie or

Lmas*uerade. They are Limpatient with

the be!!ar and any other distractionand feel they alone make up reality, Lthe

world.

• The be!!ar may represent their lost

conscience. They have lost touch with

their human selves, as they rush alon!

pretendin! that their lives alone are

what matters. They trample on the

be!!ar or on the soul of the city.

•

The crowds are so bi! the street isLblackened. Mr the street blackens at

dusk for all those stran!e visits and

sordid ima!es the day-time street hardly

understands. Mr the street is black in a

moral sense as people i!nore their

conscience. 9erhaps /liot wants us to

have all three meanin!s at once.

• Mn the other hand /liot may be havin! a

5hristian vision here. The Lsoul may be

the soul of 5hrist. (n that case he isaccusin! the busy passers-by of i!norin!

5hrist. (t is as if the crowd are crucifyin!

5hrist in their sel)sh and sinful lives, too

full of their own certainty.

• The observer then makes personal

remarks about the scenes shown in the

four preludes.

• /liot is touched by the characters he has

portrayed in the four preludes. He pities

them in their *uiet su8erin!.

• He feels that there are a lot of !entle

people, perhaps like the !irl revealed in

L9relude (((, who lead a life of su8erin!.• He may even be referrin! hopefully to

the constant spiritual presence of the

su8erin! 5hrist. The idea is that 5hrist

would redeem or !ive meanin! to the

lost lives of these city dwellers.

• Then another side of /liot comes out. He

shocks us by sneerin! at the thou!ht he

has >ust had. He lau!hs mockin!ly.

•

He seems to realise that women havealways had a tou!h time. They will

continue to stru!!le for survival. Human

life !oes in cycles and poverty will

always be part of those cycles. (n old

a!e the same women, who made their

livin! from sordid actions as they tossed

their blanket, will poke around in empty

buildin! sites for sticks for the )re.

Thats what makes the world !o round.

• /liots )nal position is that there is nocruci)ed 5hrist in the back!round

providin! spiritual meanin! for people

as they su8er.

• Themes

• &uering

9eople live harsh lives, full of routine

and boredom. Cife is an unchan!in!

cycle of day and ni!ht. There is a sense

of people waitin! and rushin! but notreally en>oyin! their lives. 9eople endure

the discomfort of winter. They live in

)lthy conditions. &ome hide false lives

from the eyes of others. Women

stru!!le, leadin! sordid and unhy!ienic

lives. The poet pities this su8erin! and

seeks a spiritual si!ni)cance for it. But

he !ives up and lau!hs at it all.

• The (ature )f ife !n The *ity

Aay and ni!ht are di8erent in the city.By day it is a scene of rushin! crowds

headin! to co8ee stands before work or

headin! home from newspaper stands

after work. 'or many their daily life is a



mas*uerade in comparison to what they

do at ni!ht. woman has a vision of the

street that others dont have. t ni!ht

the street is blackened and a type of

)lthy underworld exists. t ni!ht people

live their secret lives, creatin! Lsordid

ima!es.

• Women And +en

round 010< a womans life was

diQcult. The poem portrays a woman

passin! an uneasy ni!ht in bed,

tormented by sordid ima!es, perhaps of

her clients. Her hands are dirty, like the

din!y hands that lift thousand shades.

Mld women are reduced to pickin! twi!s

as )re fuel. =en on the other hand are

portrayed as livin! lives that are busy

but false. They are full of certainty. Theyli!ht their pipes and read evenin!

newspapers. The women use the same

papers only for hair curlers as they

prepare themselves for men.

• retence

9eople lead double lives. The

respectable life people live by day hides

a sordid ni!ht-life. Beer and sordid

ima!es are the reality of ni!ht-life for

some. By day they act out a cleaner lifeas they rush for the co8ee stands and

work, pretendin! to have a clean

conscience. They i!nore the su8erin! of

a be!!ar as they !et on with their busy

and important lives. But it is all a

Lmas*uerade or pretence.

• Time

/liot looks at the faces of the city at

di8erent times dusk, ni!ht-time,mornin!, afternoon. (n time nothin!

chan!es, the world revolves around

human misery, especially the misery of

women.

• ifestyle

9eoples lives in 010< consisted of

rushin! to and from work, consumin!

co8ee, beer and steaks, readin!

newspapers, smokin! pipes and secret,

sordid activities.• o-erty

/liot portrays )lth and ne!lect. Hands

and feet are dirty. The streets are full of

rubbish. Mld women hunt for fuel. Youn!

women sell their bodies. Women use

newspapers for curlers.

nalysis of T& /liot7s - 9reludes

T.& /liots 9reludes, is one of his most

prominent poems because it presents his view

of society as a wasteland at that time. He does

this by usin! concrete ob>ects and ima!es tometaphorically explore the nature of life and

society. (n this poem, we discover society as

corrupt and desolate !oin! throu!h a cycle of

meanin!less routine where people bare a false

hope of a divine source overlookin! and

protectin! humanity.

The title itself holds si!ni)cant meanin!.

prelude in !eneral and particularly in a musical

sense characteri+es an introduction to

somethin!. This is su!!estin! that the

characteristics of society we are provided with

in this poem are merely an introduction to

what we should be viewin! society like.

The #rst stan+a introduces the tone of the

poem with a description of a typical street

from an omniscient point of view. We are )rst

!iven the impression of a desolate, corrupt and

exhausted society throu!h use of a variety of

verbs like x is accumulation of verbs is heavilysupported throu!h a the use of alliteration of

the "s% sound in words like x This techni*ue

evokes our sense of smell ima!inin! the

picture /liot is describin!. Throu!hout the )rst

stan+a, we are !iven the su!!estion of the

presence of people thou!h it is not actually

ever stated. This is evident in the mentionin!

of"smell of steaksfeet.% This e8ectively

communicates to us that this is a fra!mented

world where nothin! is whole. The darkness of

the )rst stan+a is concluded with a pause,

creatin! anticipation followed by the line "then

the li!htin! of the lamps% This line !ives us a

feelin! of hope as the darkness is contrasted

with the mentionin! of li!ht.

However, the start of the second stan+a

marks the next mornin! yet the tone is still

identical to that of the )rst. /liot stresses out

the fact that it is now mornin!, the possibilityof a new start, throu!h the use of

personi)cation. But we are soon to discover

that nothin! has chan!ed. The lines that follow

it !ive us the feelin! of a "han!over.% This is



depicted by the mentionin! of "faint stale

smells of beer from the sawdust-trampled

streets% Mnce a!ain the alliteration of "s%

reminds us of the sense of smell of the ima!e

we are !iven. The rest of the stan+a continues

the motif of emptiness created in the )rst

stan+a with the extensive use of "muddy feet

hands.% The last line introduces a chan!e in

perspective as we now focus on a more

personal view, assumin! the point of view of

one particular person.

The shift to the second person immediately

leads us to become more involved with the

situation. The )rst three lines depict a haunted

and restless ni!ht usin! the repetition of "you%

and the accumulation x whole stan+a

constructs a shattered and desolate life,

stren!thenin! the picture painted from theearlier stan+as. This is portrayed by the "sordid

ima!es of which your soul was constituted%

The woman in this stan+a even !oes throu!h

an epiphany, in which we are shown that she

herself makes a discovery of life to be

meanin!less. This opinion of society is

reected as an opinion shared by the whole

society since this particular woman is

representative of everyone because she is >ust

one of "a thousand furnished rooms.% The )nal part of the poem embraces the

climax of the poems messa!e and wraps up

what is stated. fter three stan+as of

describin! a failin! society, this stan+a

su!!ests it is an on!oin! cycle. The view is

now switched to another particular person, a

man this time. The alliteration of the "s% is

reintroduced here in the )rst line "soul

stretched ti!ht across the skies% /liot pointsout the action of Lstretchin! to su!!est a

sense of pain and a!ony created by

restlessness. This idea could also be extended

to almost make it seem like the man is

vulnerable and fra!ile since his soul is

personi)cated to be "stretchin! ti!ht.% The

accumulation of "four and )ve and six oclock%

infers a rhythm and a busy on!oin! routine

which society !oes throu!h, almost like in a

mechanical way. This further outlines howsociety is so meanin!less since we are forced

to !o throu!h the same routine everyday. The

"evenin! newspapers% is a reference to the

people who travel in public transport everyday

and readin! the paper in the evenin!, a routine

many people share.

The )nal three lines are very dramatic as /liot

reveals that people are constantly "assured of

certain certainties% outlinin! the lack of

uni*ueness amon! society and yet a!ain

explainin! how we are part of a meanin!less

routine. The sharpness of the followin!

statement "conscience of a blackened world%

is extremely heartbreakin!. /liot for the )rst

time in the poem no lon!er uses a metaphor to

brin! across his messa!e but instead makes a

de)nite statement about the fate of society

and ultimately, the world. This rather harsh

statement !ives us the total impression that

there is no hope left in society and that we all

live in a doomed world with nothin! to save us,

a truth we, as the reader, are forced todiscover and accept. This forms a climax in the

poem as we share the despair in the words

that conclude his opinion.

However, the next stan+a directly contrasts

this lack of hope. The perspective chan!es to

the )rst person with a very personal view. His

mentionin! of "the notion of some in)nitely

!entle in)nitely su8erin! thin!% is a reference

to Eesus, a divine source, whom many people

of society rely on for hope. /liot is statin! thathe is succumbin! himself to the hope of a !od

to save him and society. This denotes that this

is exactly what people think of for hope, a

divine intervention of some sort to save

humanity. But /liot *uickly dismisses this

source of hope in the )nal concludin! stan+a.

$sin! an extremely harsh and sava!e tone,

/liot totally disre!ards the hope of a !od

savin! the world. This yet a!ain brin!s us backto the tone of a sense of hopelessness, as the

world has no one to save it. The use of the

world "revolves% tells us that society is still

under!oin! a continuous process, a reminder

of the idea of a meanin!less, mechanic routine

which society !oes throu!h. The very last line

"!atherin! fuel in vacant lots% is a very bleak

and terror-)lled tone, which the poem

concludes on. The Lvacant lots brin!s us back

to the )rst stan+a, a street where the society iscorrupt, desolate and fra!mented.

/liots 9reludes, is a poem that expresses his

view of society as a hopeless world where the

streets are lonely, shattered and exhausted



and its people are mechanical, !oin! throu!h a

constant, meanin!less routine that lacks

vividness and uni*ueness. Aiscoveries are

forced upon the reader as we are faced with

the harsh reality of society. Aivine sources are

what people believe in for hope but he

dismisses this idea as well, statin! that it

doesnt exist and that no one will save this

world from its doomed state. nd so, with this

in mind we truly discover what our world faces

and how there is no !od to save us.

The Waste Cand

:(am &ibyllam uidem *umis ego ipse oculis

meis -idi

in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri

dicerent/ XZ[\\]

^ _`\`3 respondebat illa ]_]` _`\.:

'or /+ra 9ound

il miglior fabbro.

$m, whatF

That7s ri!ht folks. /liot starts this poem o8 with

an epi!raph that mi!ht as well be ncient

4reek to &hmoop. Mh wait, it is.

ctually, it7s in 4reek and Catin, and it refers to

a very famous, very old textD9etronius7:&atyricon." The poem refers to an ncient

4reek oracle, 5umaean &ibyl, who was !ranted

immortality by pollo, for whom she was a

prophetess. /ventually, she really really really

re!retted this wish ?immortality is almost

never as awesome as it sounds@, because she

>ust !rows older and older and never dies. &o

in this *uote from the poem, the speaker asks

5umaean &ibyl what she wants most, and she

says that she wants to die.

Yikes. ow there7s a hint of what7s to come,

ri!htF (n a poem that7s all about the spiritual

and cultural death of the Western world, it only

makes sense that we would be!in with the life

of an oracle that is utterly without meanin!.

nd the classicalallusion reminds us that we7re

about to read a library7s worth of references to

the !reatest hits of Western literature. The

epi!raph7s tellin! us to buckle up.

nd that last part, about il miglior fabbroF

That7s a dedication to the poet and critic /+ra

9ound, who help /liot edit this poem within an

inch of its life, until it became the masterpiece

that you7re readin! today.

The Waste Cand &ettin!

Where (t ll 4oes Aown

(t mi!ht not seem like it at )rst, but the title of

this poem is dead-on. This poem is set in :The

Waste Cand.: But even a *uick !lance at the

poem can tell us that this isn7tliterally true. The

settin! actually seems to y all over the place,

from a fancy chalet in the &wiss countryside to

a pub in Condon, from the banks of the Thames

#iver to some unnamed, desert-like place. But

the settin! of this poem is not >ust a physical

place, but a mental and spiritual landscape

that is dry, infertile, and !enerally awful.

Wrappin! your head around this idea of a

:physical place inside your head: is really

important to understandin! this poem. When

you try to picture the settin! of this poem, it7s

best to think about the :arid plain: ?;I@ that

/liot describes in :What the Thunder &aid,: a

rocky, sandy place where nothin! will !row.

The waste land is also a place )lled with litter,

and not >ust the sandwich papers and ci!arette

butts of lines 0JI-0K<, but the broken

fra!ments of classic ?mostly 4reek, (talian, and#oman@ culture. (n this settin!, you can picture

the blind prophet Tiresias !ropin! his way

around the barren desert and pickin! up the

fra!ments of classic culture, while he keeps

bein! assaulted by !ross :visions: like the

catty woman chattin! in the bar or the youn!

man carbuncular havin! loveless sex with the

typist.

&o how do we make sense of all the otherliteral places this poem seems to be set in, as

with the woman in the pub, or the youn!

typist7s apartmentF Yes, these are also part of

the poem7s settin!, and they tend to take

place in Condon3 but overall, they form part of

a lar!er spiritual landscape, which /liot sees as

bein! all of Western civili+ation in the ;<th

century.

(n terms of cultural settin!, you can7t denythat World War ( is very, very present

throu!hout this poem, even thou!h /liot7s

references to it are usually indirect. This mi!ht

actually reect the way that people su8erin!

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http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/oracle.html

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http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tiresias.html

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http://www.shmoop.com/literature-glossary/literal-language.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/tiresias.html

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from shellshock often have trouble

rememberin! a battle +one because their

minds have blocked out the horror of what

happened. The overall tone of despair in this

poem, combined with the description of the

waste land as a barren, dirty place, would have

been reco!ni+ed by most readers in /liot7s

time as the battle)elds of World War (, which

completely destroyed >ust about everythin! in

certain parts of /urope, burnin! massive

meadows and forests and leavin! behind only

an endless landscape of mud, dirt, and

corpses.

The destruction of World War ( had an

enormous inuence not only on /liot, but also

all of modernism. fter all, how could Western

civili+ation continue to believe that it was

pro!ressin! when all of its so-called pro!ress

led to the deaths of over ten million peopleF

World War ( left not only a physical, but

spiritual vacuum throu!hout /urope, turnin! it

into what /liot7s waste land.

"In emory of W! ! #eats"

William Butler Yeats died in winter the brooks

were fro+en, airports were all but empty, and

statues were covered in snow. Thethermometer and other instruments told us the

day he died "was a dark cold day.%

While nature followed its course elsewhere,

mourners kept his poems alive without lettin!

the poets death interfere. Yet, for Yeats

himself, mind and body failed, leavin! no one

to appreciate his life but his admirers. He lives

throu!h his poetry, scattered amon! cities and

unfamiliar readers and critics, who modify hislife and poetry throu!h their own

understandin!s. While the rest of civili+ation

moves on, "a few thousand% will remember the

day of his death as special.

(n the second section of the poem, Yeats is

called "silly like us.% (t was "=ad (reland% that

caused Yeats the su8erin! he turned into

poetry. 9oetry survives and !ives voice to

survival in a space of isolation.(n the third, )nal section of the poem, the poet

asks the /arth to receive Yeats as "an

honoured !uest.% The body, "emptied of its

poetry,% lies there. =eanwhile, "the do!s of

/urope bark% and humans continue their

"intellectual dis!race.% But the poet is to

"follow ri!ht 6 To the bottom of the ni!ht,%

despite the dark side of humanity somehow

persuadin! others to re>oice in existence.

Aespite "human unsuccess,% the poet can sin!

out throu!h the "curse% and "distress.% Thus

ones poetry is a "healin! fountain% that,

althou!h life is a "prison,% can "teach the free

man how to praise% life anyway.

Analysis

lon! with his piece on the death of &i!mund

'reud, uden7s tribute to the poet William

Butler Yeats is a most memorable ele!y on the

death of a public )!ure. Written in 01<, it

commemorates the death of the poet in 01G1,

a critical year for uden personally as well asfor the world at lar!e. This was the year he

moved to ew York and the year the world

catapulted itself into the &econd World War.

Yeats was born in (reland 0KI2 and embraced

poetry very early in his life. He never

abandoned the traditional verse format of

/n!lish poetry but embraced some of the

tenets of modernism, especially the

modernism practiced by /+ra 9ound. He waspolitically active, mystical, and often deeply

pessimistic, but his work also evinces intense

lyrical beauty and fervent exaltation in ature.

He is easily considered one of the most

important poets of the ;<th century, and

uden reco!ni+ed it at the time.

The poem is or!ani+ed into three sections and

is a commentary on the nature of a !reat

poets art and its role durin! a time of !reat

calamityDas well as the ordinary time of lifes

stru!!les.

The )rst, mournful section describes the

coldness of death, repeatin! that "The day of

his death was a dark cold day.% The

environment reects the coldness of death

rivers are too fro+en to run3 hardly anyone

travels by air3 statues of public )!ures are

desecrated by snow. These conditions

symboli+e the loss of activity and ener!y in

Yeats death.

t the same time, far away, wolves run and

"the peasant river% ows outside of the rest of

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civili+ation ?"untempted by the fashionable

*uays%@, keepin! the poetry alive. The

implication is that the poems live even thou!h

the man may be dead. The diQculty with this

situation, however, is that the man can no

lon!er speak for himself3 "he became his

admirers.% His poems, like ashes, are

"scattered% everywhere and are misinterpreted

?"unfamiliar a8ections% are brou!ht into the

poems@. The u!ly fact of bad di!estion

modi)es the poems as "The words of a dead

man 6 re modi)ed in the !uts of the livin!.%

'urthermore, as in "'uneral Blues% and "=usVe

des Beaux rts,% the events of the avera!e

day !o onDa trader yells on the oor, the poor

su8erDfor most people, the day !oes

unmarked. (t takes a special soul to mark the

importance of the day of the death of a !reatpoet, and only "a few thousand% have such a

soul. s scholar Eames 9ersoon writes, "These

two elementsDthe poet7s death as national

and natural crisis and the poets death as

almost completely insi!ni)cantDdescribe a

tension within which uden explores the life of

the work after the death of the author.% Thus,

in addition to the thermometer tellin! us so,

the speaker of the poem tells us that it is a"dark cold day% with respect to the popular

reception of Yeats poetry.

(n the second section the speaker briey

reects on the !enerative power behind Yeats

poetry. (t was "=ad (reland% that "hurt% him

and inspired his poetry as a form of survival.

'or Yeats, "silly% like other poets or, more

broadly, like other (rishmen or humans, poetry

was a "!ift% that survived everythin! otherthan itselfDeven Yeats own physical

de!eneration, the misinterpretations of "rich

women,% and Yeats own failin!s. 9oetry itself,

from this perspective, survives in the midst of

everythin!, not causin! anythin!, but owin!

out from isolated safety ?perhaps the 'reudian

subconscious@ and providin! voice

?metaphorically a "mouth%@ to that deep level

of raw and unassailable humanity.

The third and )nal part brin!s the reader back

into more familiar territory, with six stan+as of

BB verse, every line in seven-syllable

trochaic verse ?three lon!-short feet followed

by a seventh stressed syllable@.

The body of Yeats ?"the (rish vessel%@ rests in

the !round, the warrin! nations )!ht

?metaphorically, the "do!s of /urope bark%@,

people misinterpret his work ?"intellectual

dis!races%@, yet somehow, his poetry retains a

place somewhere. The true poet, like Yeatshimself, will "follow ri!ht 6 To the bottom of the

ni!ht% ?to the primordial humanity expressed

in Yeats poetry@, to that fundamental human

freedom where an "unconstrainin! voice% can

"persuade us to re>oice% in our existence.

True enou!h, the human "curse% ?evokin! the

'all of =an in 0enesis@ remains3 death awaits.

This is all too true in a time of war. But the

poet can turn the curse into a "vineyard%where sweet poetic drink can form. Mn the one

hand there are "deserts of the heart% and

human distress, yet on the other hand, with

this wine a "healin! fountain% can release a

man from "the prison of his RmortalS days.%

poet like Yeats, despite everythin!, can "teach

the free man how to praise% that fundamental

spark of existence that survives in ones

poetry.

"The Shield of Achilles"

Thetis looks at the ima!es on the shield that

Hephaestos has been makin! for chilles

durin! the Tro>an War. &he expected to see

olive trees and vines and marble cities and

ships on windy seas, but Hephaestos has

for!ed "an arti)cial wilderness% under a leaden

sky. The plain is bare and brown, but a !reat

multitude of boots stand ready for war.

faceless voice dryly explains with statistics

why war is re*uired for >ustice, so they march

forth.

Thetis also expected scenes of reli!ious piety,

but that is not what Hephaestos has been

makin!. Barbed wire encloses a military camp

in "an arbitrary spot,% and civilians observe

from a distance while the camp punishes three

pale prisoners by bindin! them to upri!ht

posts. o hope comes from outside. The

prisoners and the citi+ens are too "small,% and

the prisoners ?perhaps also the other



characters@ "lost their pride 6 nd died as men

before their bodies died.%

Thetis has looked a third time over the

shoulder of Hephaestos while he works. &he

looks for athletes and dancers en>oyin! !ames

and music, but on the shield there was a

"weed-choked )eld% instead of a dancin! oor.

Mne poor child wanders about alone, throwin!a stone at a bird that ies away to escape. To

him rape and murder seem normal. The child

has never heard of a place with kept promises

or even human sympathy.

Hephaestos limps away, revealin! the whole

shield to Thetis, who cries out in horror at its

ima!ery. This is what the armorer decided to

put on the shield of chilles, son of Thetis,

chilles the man-slayer doomed to soon die.Analysis

"The &hield of chilles% provides a chillin!

confrontation between love and war. Written in

01I;, it was included in his volume of poetry

of the same name, which was published in

01II. The volume won the ational Book

ward in 01I2. (t is written in alternatin!

seven-line stan+as of rime royal ?BBB55@

and ei!ht-line stan+as in a ballad format?B5BA/'/@.

The contents of the poem derive from

Homers !liad, an ancient epic poem

concernin! a key part of the Tro>an War. lot

has happened by this point. (n book 0K, the

!oddess Thetis, the mother of chilles, asks

the !od Hephaestos ?Catini+ed as Hephaestus@

to create a shield for son so he can triumph in

the war a!ainst Troy. chilless earlier shieldwas taken by Hector after he killed chilles

close friend 9atroclus, who had taken the

armor into battle thinkin! that seein! this

armor would scare the Tro>ans ?chilles had

stayed out of the )!ht over a dispute with

!amemnon about a woman@. Homer !oes into

!reat detail describin! the shield that

Hephaestos makes3 it contains a veritable

history of the world in its scenes of pastoral

calm, marria!e, war, the cosmos, art, and

nature.

The poem be!ins Thetis lookin! over the

armorers shoulder with disappointment. (n

each of her three stan+as, employin! the

repetition "&he looked over his shoulder% in

the )rst line, she is hopin! to see ima!es of

civili+ation, >oy, piety, and peaceful

employment of athletic and musical arts. &he

loves her son and is thinkin! ahead to what he

should be )!htin! for. But instead she sees

ima!es of irrationality, war, wilderness,

immorality, in>ustice, and punishment. The

contrast between what Thetis expects and

what Hephaestos delivers, what Thetis desires

and what the armorer thinks appropriate for

chilles, is stark.

The pattern of hope and disappointment

occurs all three times, followed by the

concludin! stan+a wrappin! up the point after

all, chilles is doomed to live a short but heroic

warriors life. chilles, like people in !eneral,can try to live avera!e but borin! lives instead,

but chilles has chosen heroism, and his

mother is dismayed.

5ritic &cott Horton ar!ues that the poem has

contemporary resonance for uden and his

audience, reectin! a warnin! about the 5old

War and the authoritarian warmon!erin! of the

01I<s "uden is not portrayin! the tra!edies

of the last war as such. He is warnin! of aworld to come in which totalitarian societies

dominate and the worth and di!nity of the

individual human bein! are lost. He warns

those who stand by, decent thou!h they may

seemin!ly be, and say nothin!.% This

perspective is supported by anachronistic

ima!es on the shield. Thetis sees a scene that

seems more like one from the &econd World

War barbed wire around a military base.=odern war en!a!es "millions% and spreads

propa!anda throu!h "statistics.%

nother allusion on the military base concerns

the three people punished. crowd watches

from a distance as three )!ures are brou!ht

forth and bound to three posts in the !round.

This scene alludes to the 5ruci)xion of Eesus

between two others, as thou!h the three posts

are crosses, and it makes the horrors of war

seem more universal. Horton writes, "the

anonymous ima!e also displaces the !reater

spiritual si!ni)cance of the 5hristian sacri)ce,

su!!estin! that in the modern world such



sacri)ce has lost its ultimate meanin! and that

the victims, 5hrist in particular, have become

nameless and insi!ni)cant.% 9oet nthony

Hecht has noted that the executed men were

not martyrs, >ust victims. Mne also mi!ht see in

this ima!e an allusion to the Eews and others

killed in a+i concentration camps.

When Hephaestos hobbles away ?in myth he islame@ without comment, the shield is his only

statement. He put a mirror up to reality and

reproduced it on the "shinin! metal.% (n

contrast, Thetis "shinin! breasts% reect her

motherly love, less with reality than with hope.

uden once said, " society which was really

like a !ood poem, embodyin! the virtues of

beauty, order, economy, and subordination of

detail to the whole, would be a horror.% s

much as we mi!ht strive for the virtues, realityDwhether presented by Hephaestos, Homer,

or udenDshows us a di8erent, more

distressin! world.

Summary o$ the poem

(n this poem, &tephen &pender has brou!ht out

the miserable condition of the children

studyin! in an elementary school in a slum. The children in the classroom are pale and

unhealthy and some are even diseased. Their

unkempt and dull hair has been compared to

rootless weeds. Mne of the !irls is apparently

burdened with the miseries of poverty. Mne of

the boys has inherited his fathers disease and

has stunted !rowth. nother student is sittin!

unnoticed and he is yearnin! to play outdoors.

The donations !iven to the school in the form

of pictures, paintin!s and maps aremeanin!less for the children. They exhibit the

world of the elite and the privile!ed while the

children in the slum have a future that is

sealed and con)ned to the slum. Their future is

dark and limited. The donations on the walls

only add to the frustration of the children. They

are tempted to attain what would be

unattainable for them. The only hope for them

is the support from powerful people like the!overnor, inspector or an inuential visitor. The

children in the slum can pro!ress only if they

are !iven !ood education and the freedom to

move into a world of opportunities and

pro!ress. The poet also states that history is

made only by those people who have the

power of knowled!e. Hence, educatin! and

lettin! the children into a free world of

opportunities would release them from the

su8ocatin!, wretched life in a slum.

Son% $or Saint Cecilia&s 'ay

1ohn 2ryden

'rom Harmony, from heavenly Harmony This

universal frame be!an When nature

underneath a heap Mf >arrin! atoms lay nd

could not heave her head, The tuneful voice

was heard from hi!h, rise, ye more than

deadP Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry

(n order to their stations leap, nd =usic7spower obey. 'rom Harmony, from heavenly

harmony This universal frame be!an 'rom

harmony to harmony Throu!h all the compass

of the notes it ran, The diapason closin! full in

=an. What passion cannot =usic raise and

*uellF When Eubal struck the chorded shell His

listenin! brethren stood around, nd,

wonderin!, on their faces fell To worship that

celestial sound. Cess than a !od they thou!ht

there could not dwell Within the hollow of thatshell That spoke so sweetly and so well. What

passion cannot =usic raise and *uellF The

trumpet7s loud clan!our /xcites us to arms,

With shrill notes of an!er nd mortal alarms.

The double double double beat Mf the

thunderin! drum 5ries 7HarkP the foes come3

5har!e, char!e, 7tis too late to retreatP7 The

soft complainin! ute (n dyin! notes discovers

The woes of hopeless lovers, Whose dir!e iswhisper7d by the warblin! lute. &harp violins

proclaim Their >ealous pan!s and desperation,

'ury, frantic indi!nation, Aepths of pains, and

hei!ht of passion 'or the fair disdainful dame.

But ohP what art can teach, What human voice

can reach The sacred or!an7s praiseF otes

inspirin! holy love, otes that win! their

heavenly ways To mend the choirs above.

Mrpheus could lead the sava!e race, nd trees

unrooted left their place &e*uacious of thelyre But bri!ht 5ecilia raised the wonder

hi!her When to her Mr!an vocal breath was

!iven n an!el heard, and strai!ht appear7dD

=istakin! /arth for Heaven. (rand Chorus As



from the power of sacred lays The spheres

began to mo-e, And sung the great *reator's

praise To all the blest abo-e3 &o when the last

and dreadful hour This crumbling pageant

shall de-our, The trumpet shall be heard on

high, The dead shall li-e, the li-ing die, And

music shall untune the sky.

Summary) !nterpretation andAnalysis Song for Saint Cecilia$s %ay

The ori!in of music has always remained

a mystery thou!h it has always attracted man

towards itself since the time immemorial. &o

myths and le!ends were born to >ustify the

ori!ination of music. &aint 5ecilia was such a

le!endary )!ure of the second century, who

was said to have established music as a divine

art on earth. Thou!h her connection withmusic is *uite uncertain, there are le!ends of

her attractin! an an!el down to earth by

sin!in! and she even came to be spoken of the

inventor of the or!an. Aryden wrote &on! for

&aint 5ecilias Aay for the performance with

orchestra to celebrate the festival of &aint

5ecilias Aay in 02KJ. (t is an interestin! fact

that the !reatest /n!lish composer of the day

Henry 9urcel composed the music for the son!.

&aint 5ecilia was a 5hristian )!ure, but while

dealin! with the theme, Aryden has drawn

upon the pa!an philosophical doctrine of

9ytha!oras to explain the power of music. The

concludin! chorus is, however, 5hristian in

spirit referrin! to the pocalypse of the Bible.

The poem be!ins with the description of

the process of the creation of the universe

'rom Harmony, from heavenly Harmony This

universal frame be!an When nature

underneath a heap Mf >arrin! atoms lay nd

could not heave her head, The tuneful voice

was heard from hi!h, rise, ye more than

deadP

This is a 9ytha!orean doctrine. 9ytha!oras saw

the universe as the manifestation of the

heavenly harmony which he believed had held

contrary thin!s to!ether. This was not merely a

con>ecture for him the essential element for

him in harmony was numbers and so harmony

was founded upon numerical proportions as it

is also today. But while drawin! upon the

9ytha!orean theory Aryden has also used the

biblical theory of 5reation in which man was

the latest and the best product in the process

of 4enesis

The diapason closin! full in =an.

(n the subse*uent stan+as Aryden illustrates

how human bein!s are over-powered by

various kinds of music. 'irst of all, he refers to

Eubal who is the father of music in ancient

Eewish literature and who is thou!ht to have

invented the lyre made of strin!s stretched

across the shell of a tortoise. Here Eubal is

introduced to show that music can force man

towards divinity and thus testi)es to its divine

association,

Cess than a !od they thou!ht there could not

dwell Within the hollow of that shell That spoke

so sweetly and so well.

(n the third stan+a Aryden describes how wild

music of trumpet incites the passion of an!er

in human hearts, and how the wild beats of

drum leads them to take up arms a!ainst the

enemies. (n the fourth stan+a Aryden shows

that music even can reect the most re)nedfeelin!s like those of the "hopeless lovers%. (n

the )fth stan+a the power of the musical

instrument violin is described. (t is to be noted

that Aryden has carefully selected di8erent

rhythms in describin! di8erent instruments.

Thus he has conveyed their various kinds of

impact.

(n the sixth stan+a the divine *ualities of the

musical instrument like the or!an have beencontrasted with those of the human voice

What human voice can reach The sacred

or!an7s praiseF

Aryden refers to or!an and its divine

association in order to come to the central

)!ure of the poem, &t 5ecilia. But before that

he refers to the mythical, musical )!ure of

ancient 4reece, Mrpheus who is attributed withso many miracles he had performed by his

power of music with the lyre. But accordin! to

Aryden, &t 5ecilia had performed !reater

miracle by attractin! an an!el who mistook



earth for heaven by listenin! to her music.

(n the !rand 5horus he concludes by utterin! a

prophecy that as the universe was created

from the power !enerated out the musical

harmony, so the universe will cease to exist

with the end of that harmony

&o when the last and dreadful hour This

crumbling pageant shall de-our, The trumpet

shall be heard on high, The dead shall li-e, the

li-ing die, And music shall untune the sky.

This theory is wholly Biblical in spirit referrin!

to the pocalypse prophesied by &t Eohn in the

)nal chapter of the Bible. Arydens ori!inally is

that he has used it to illustrate the power and

position of music in the universe. We are

reminded of few lines the !reat 5anadian pop-icon of the ;<th century Ceonard 5ohen has

sun! to us in The 0reat 4-ent

(t is !oin! to happen very soon, The !reat

event, Which will end the horror, Which will

end the sorrow. ext Tuesday, when the sun

!oes down, ( will play the =oonli!ht &onata

backwards. This will reverse the e8ect Mf the

world7s mad plun!e into su8erin! 'or the last

;<< million years.

Critical Analysis of &oem'

The poem ( Think 5ontinually was written in

01GG by &tephen &pender. The poem, ( believe,

describes in &penders opinion what makes a

person truly !reat. The poem could also be a

tribute to those who are truly !reat. (n the

poem &pender describes someone who is !reat

by bein! someone who is seless in actions

and is passionate in his or her beliefs. Thispoem could also be to describe a person who

speaks out a!ainst in>ustice and )!hts for what

is truly ri!ht. The time period also seems to

make a impression on &pender as it was post-

World War ( and 9re World War (( tensions. (

state this as a factor because it could have had

a e8ect on &pender as the war and chaos and

/urope was everywhere. &ince war and conict

was bein! wa!ed around /urope and friends,

or at least people &pender knew, would have

!one to war, so it could be somewhat referrin!

to the soldiers.

n nalysis of &tephen &pender7s 7$ltima

#atio #e!um7

The &panish 5ivil War was a conict that had a

profound inuence on many 01G<s artists,

especially poets, such as &tephen &pender.

This article analy+es &pender7s 7$ltima #atio

#e!um7, a poem written about the conict,

lookin! in particular at the structural form

&pender selected for this work, and

hi!hli!htin! some of the literary devices he

employed, as well as assessin! the e8ect

these have on the content of the poem.

(n terms of form and structure 7$ltima #atio

#e!um7 is fairly conventional. (t comprises

several stan+as, each containin! an e*ual

number of lines. The lan!ua!e employed is

relatively strai!ht forward, in that it doesn7temploy a formidable vocabulary or is it

abundant in syntactical trickery - features that

are characteristic of the contemporaneous

work of W.H. uden. (ts central messa!e is

probably comprehensible to most readers on a

)rst perusal. (n re!ards to tone, the poem is

comparatively serious, articulatin! heartfelt

and sincere views in a direct and immediate

manner.

n understandin! of Catin is clearly re*uired to

comprehend the title of &pender7s poem, as

translated into /n!lish, 7$ltima #atio #e!um7

reads 7The last ar!ument of kin!s7. This !ives

some idea as to the concerns of the poem. The

title refers to war as bein! the )nal measure in

which monarchies, as opposed to democracies,

settle their di8erences. This serves to

stren!then &pender7s credentials as a paci)st,

as he is clearly referrin! to the horrors of all

wars instead of >ust the &panish 5ivil War.

7$ltima #atio #e!um7 is in four stan+as, each

containin! six lines of varyin! len!th. (t is

related in the third-person by an unnamed

narrator who describes the death of a youn!

man who dies in action in an unspeci)ed

conict. The events described are somewhat

va!ue and are not arran!ed in a se*uentialorder, for example, the )rst stan+a informs us

that :the boy lyin! dead under the olive trees 6

Was too youn! and too silly: while the third



stan+a opens with the line :M too li!htly he

threw down his cap:, as if he were still alive.

The poem7s prota!onist is conveyed as an

alienated and anonymous youn! man with no

particular role in society. This impression is

created mainly in the )rst three lines of the

second stan+a. We learn that :factory hooters

never summoned him:, indicatin! that he waseither too youn! to work, or was of a class who

wouldn7t be expected to work in factories. We

also learn however that :or did restaurant

plate-!lass doors revolve to wave him in: - a

line which reects that upper-class society was

less than welcomin! to him. We !ather that he

wasn7t famous throu!h the line :His name

never appeared in the papers:. The line :The

world maintained its traditional wall: indicates

that he was somethin! of an outcast. The

repetition of the word :wall: in the third stan+a

is illuminatin!, especially in that it is described

now as :unowerin!:, instead of :traditional:,

possibly meanin! it never yielded anythin! for

the youn! man. ow it is :sprouted with !uns:,

and it seems somewhat inevitable that the

succeedin! lines depict the prota!onist7s

death, as if he had been )nally !unned down

by the society that had previously shunnedhim.

&pender doesn7t portray the boy7s brutal death

in !raphically realistic detail but instead adopts

a noticeably )!urative approach. This is

achieved mainly throu!h ima!ery and

symbolism. The :olive trees:, mentioned in the

)rst and )nal stan+as, are symbolic in the way

that the olive branch is used to convey the

idea of peace. There is a hint of irony in thatthe boy7s body is :lyin! dead: beneath them.

(n the last stan+a, &pender addresses the

reader directly. The use of caesura - a

prominent full stop in the third and fourth lines

- demands that the reader :5onsider: and

:sk: as to why so much money was spent on

the youn! man7s death.

Ben H. Wri!ht is an independent scholar and

researcher. His website, The Citerary (ndex,

features a vast array of links to academic

writin!s on novels and poetry, available to

view online for free. The site covers a wide

ran!e of literature on over G<< authors and is

of interest to anyone studyin! novels or poetry

at advanced or de!ree level, as well as readers

interested in explorin! a certain work in

!reater depth.

'ylan Thomas oem in *ctober

Aylan thomas penned 9oem in

Mctober to honour his thirtieth birthday.

The poem is )lled with feelin! and colour and

Thomas !oes to !reat len!ths to relay his inner

thou!hts and feelin!s.

#ead the poem a few times and the pure

beauty of his words shine throu!h. The

moment Thomas puts pen to paper he is busy

weavin! an emotive tale for his followers.

His work is riddled with hidden meanin! and it

is our >ob to read and interpret as we think )t.

This is my take on a 9oem in Mctober.

Aylan Thomas awakes early on the mornin! of

his utumnal thirtieth birthday.

ll around him are still asleep and it seems

that Aylan may have mixed feelin!s about the

forthcomin! year.

Aylan lays in bed listenin! intently to the

familiar sounds that he he feels are worthy of

!reater exploration.

The birds are on the shore and he can hear

the wind whistlin! throu!h the trees in the

nearby wood.

The waves are rollin! in and the sea!ulls and

rooks are callin! to the tune of the small

)shin! boats bobbin! on the swellin! sea.

Aylan rises with a sense of determination, the

rest of the villa!e may well be asleep but he

feels a need to !o out and explore.

(n verse two Aylan be!ins by recallin! how his

special day be!an, he awoke to the sound of

water and the day be!ins as it means to !o on.

Aylan )nds himself walkin! throu!h the

countryside cau!ht in the middle a heavy

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utumn shower but at this point he appears to

be )ndin! contentment in his state if solitude.

s Aylan reaches the top of the hill the chill

wind and the utumn shower are left behind

and he )nds himself en>oyin! some Mctober

sunshine. The top of the hill is alive with the

sound of birdson!.

Aylan stands on the breast of the hill to admire

the view. Throu!h the sea mist he can pick out

the shape of the castle and the spire on the

small church below thou!h they look dreary in

the misty li!ht.

He lau!hs to himself as he recalls all of the tall

tales that went on in &ummer >ust past, when

each and every !ardener tried to outdo each

other.

Aylan is drinkin! in the beauty as the weather

decides to chan!e yet a!ain. Mverhead the sky

boasts a beautiful rainbow and as Aylan turns

to face that rainbow he is suddenly

transported back to the days of his childhood.

Those precious days when he walked throu!h

sunny )elds hand in hand with his =other.

Today he walks throu!h those )elds as a man

not a boy. (nside he still feels like a boy but he

is a youn! man who is at that point mournin!

for his lost youth.

Yet a!ain Aylan turns, he looks down the the

town that is covered with utumn leaves and

wishes with all of his heart that he will be able

to return to the top of that hill on his next

birthday.

Thomas puts so much colour into 9oem in

Mctober. The syllabic metre has been used

artistically.

s you read throu!h the poem for the )rst time

you realise that you must pay attention, if you

read the poem as it stands then the beauty of

the verse would be lost.

Thomas knows this and he wants you to lin!er

over his beautiful poetry. (f he has spent many

hours composin! it then he wants you to read

it carefully and !rasp what he is tryin! to tell

you.

Thomas is an artist, his paintbox his words and

his palette his paper. He paints the scene and

you will make of it what you will.

9oem in Mctober is )lled with self expression,

Thomas works his way throu!h the poemdepictin! many di8erent scenes and displayin!

varyin! emotions.

His birthday be!ins on a hi!h and he remains

upbeat until he recalls his childhood. Then and

only then does he feel that dramatic sense of

loss, his childhood is )rmly in the past.

$sually we7re super-strict about keepin! the

speaker of a poem separate from theauthor of a poem. fter all, poets often

create )ctional personas who they ima!ine

to be speakin! their work N not everythin!

they write down is what they personally

believe. But in the case of :Ao ot 4o

4entle into That 4ood i!ht,: it7s nearly

impossible to separate the speaker of the

poem, who is ur!in! his father to stru!!le

mi!htily with death, from the author Aylan Thomas, who was really upset about his

own father7s declinin! health and

impendin! death. =aybe the best way to

think of it is this Thomas is usin! the

speaker of his poem to say thin!s to an

ima!inary father that mi!ht have been too

diQcult to say face-to-face to his own

father, or that his father ?who was dyin! at

the time@ wouldn7t have had the ener!y to

hear or understand. The speaker is Thomas7s alter e!o, composed of

autobio!raphical elements, but still not

*uite the same as the man himself.

Ao ot 4o 4entle into That 4ood i!ht

(t7s also interestin! to notice that we don7t

know the speaker is usin! the )rst person until

nearly the end of the poem, when he uses

:me: and :(: in line 0J. We have to shift our

opinion of the speaker and his perspective



once we7re blindsided with the )rst-person

stu8 in the last stan+a.

The 2eathbed and Beyond

:Ao ot 4o 4entle into That 4ood i!ht:

doesn7t >ust have one settin! N it has many.

Mver the course of the poem7s compact

nineteen lines, Thomas takes us from a

lin!erin! sunset to a bolt of li!htnin!, from a

!reen bay extendin! out from the seashore to

a shootin! star bla+in! across the sky, and

)nally to the top of a mountain. Mf course, all

of these places are metaphorical descriptions

of life, death, and stru!!le, but we7re startin!

to notice that they7re all !rand aspects of

nature. This poem literally !oes from the

depths of the ocean, the :!reen bay,: to the

tallest peak, that :sad hei!ht,: and everywherein-between. Mf course, the whole time we7re

travelin! throu!h nature, the speaker is really

at the bedside of his dyin! father.

(n this analysis of "Ao ot 4o 4entle into that

4ood i!ht% by Aylan Thomas, it will be

explored how this is a poem that explores the

helplessness associated with !rowin! old and

inchin! toward death. There are six stan+as in

"Ao ot 4o 4entle into that 4ood i!ht% byAylan Thomas with a simple rhyme structure

that belies the complex messa!e of the poem.

(n !eneral, it is clear that this is a poem about

death and dyin! but when examined closer, it

becomes apparent that it is also about life and

how it is lived. Throu!h the structure of "Ao

ot 4o 4entle into that 4ood i!ht% by Aylan

Thomas as well as the use and choice of

lan!ua!e that invokes certain ima!es and

employs certain techni*ues that arouse deepima!ery6

The speaker of the poem "Ao ot 4o 4entle

into that 4ood i!ht% by Aylan Thomas seems

to think it is not honorable or be)ttin! for a

!reat or interestin! man to die *uietly in old

a!e and he encoura!es the reader to think

that death is somethin! that should be fou!ht

rather than mutely accepted. (nterestin!ly, this

poem can be divided into three parts, the )rstof which acts as an introduction to the

speakers messa!e. This is followed by four

stan+as that o8er examples of what he is

expressin! followed by the last stan+a, the

third part, in which the tone becomes far more

personal as the speaker talks about his father.

(n many ways, one could read this poem and

provide the su!!estion in an analysis of "Ao

ot 4o 4entle (nto That 4ood i!ht% sayin! it

is as a statement about livin! a stron! life and

refusin! to !o down *uietly >ust as easily as it

can be read as a poem about death and the

process of dyin! or a!in!.

When the speaker of "Ao ot 4o 4entle into

that 4ood i!ht% by Aylan Thomas states in

the second line of the )rst stan+a, "Mld a!e

should burn and rave at the close of day3 #a!e,

ra!e a!ainst the dyin! of that li!ht% he is

expressin! the idea that movin! toward death

should not be somethin! we do in a resi!ned

way, but rather that we should )!ht it and !oout in a bla+e of !lory. When he says, "ra!e,

ra!e a!ainst the dyin! of the li!ht% it is clear

that the dyin! li!ht is means darkness, which

is a metaphor for death and that in old a!e, we

should "burn% with life, which brin!s to mind

ima!es of bri!htness, li!ht, and life. This )rst

stan+a almost acts as somethin! of a thesis

statement for the rest of the poem since it

clearly de)nes and outlines the speakersbeliefs about a!in! and death.

The second stan+a of them poem "Ao ot 4o

4entle into that 4ood i!ht% by Aylan Thomas

is a departure from the )rst as it is less broad.

t the be!innin! of this stan+a the speaker

states, "Thou!h wise men at their end know

dark is ri!ht% he is tellin! us that a wise man

?presumably an old man@ knows that death is

approachin! and that it should be accepted asa fact. He follows that statement up with,

"because their words had forked no li!htnin!

they 6 do not !o !entle into that !ood ni!ht%

which expresses the speakers sentiment that

they have a lived a lon! life but are now

powerless, even if words were once their

!reatest ally. This desire to be known, heard,

and understood means that they are likely to

)!ht death, perhaps because they feel there is

yet more to do. These ideas are echoed in thenext two stan+as as the speaker discusses

"!ood men% who cry "how bri!ht their frail

deeds mi!ht have danced in a !reen bay% as

well as "4rave men, near death who see with



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