No Second Troy Analysis

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

.: :.

A bitter, violent opening of the poem as a result of his unrequitet love - Maud Gonne.All disatisfaction, all pain that this woman caused are shown. The poem does not retell much oh Helen but only alludes. The whole poem sonsists of 4 rethorical questions. the answer of the last is given in the title. 'Had they but courage equal to desire' - the question remains open. The desire was greater than the courage. In the poem is given a definition of beauty; a beauty that destroys. If this beauty is not appropriatefor this age then for which age it is? A contrast and a paralel is made between Helen of Troy and Maud Gonne. Helen had a destructive beauty appropriate for her age,whereas Maud Gonne did not. Yeats compares the beauty of Gonne with the one of Helen. Both were destructive because they were dangerous. They had the same danderous beauty. This age does not recognize this kind of beauty.
rhyme patterns: ABAB CDCD EFEF
lines:decasyllabic all the way through

| Posted on 2009-01-18 | by a guest