[655] No Second Troy

Guest poem sent in by Asha Jalan <littleangelasha@>

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught 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?

 	-- W. B. Yeats

We are studying Yeats' poetry in our class at the moment, and I dont think I
like his work very much; however, this poem made me pause while I was
skimming through his book of poems. There is something about this poem-
maybe it is the way in which beauty is synonymous to violence and misery, or
the inaccesibility of the woman, or her potential for causing so much
destruction...which makes the poem quite powerful.

Asha.

Links:

Biography at poem #21

Commentary scattered throughout the several Yeats poems we've run - he's the
most frequently run poet on Minstrels, just ahead of Shakespeare and
Kipling.