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NO SECOND TROY
by William Butler Yeats ************************************************** 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?
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Dear WO'N: I read that poem very carefully, several times, and could not understand it at all. I should be very much surprised if any of the other board members can. Fortunately I found a site with some background information that helps, but not as much as I could wish.
As a writer Yeats made his debut in 1885, when he published his first poems in The Dublin University Review. In 1887 the family returned to Bedford Park, and Yeats devoted himself to writing. He visited Mme Blavatsky, the famous occultist, and joined the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society, but was later asked to resign. In 1889 Yeats met his great love, Maud Gonne (1866-1953), an an actress and Irish revolutionary who became a major landmark in the poets life and imagination. However, she married in 1903 Major John MacBride, and this episode inspired Yeats's poem 'No Second Troy'. "Why, what could she have done being what she is? / Was there another Troy for her to burn." MacBride was later executed by the British.
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Here’s my stab at it, Bill:
Why should I place the blame for my misery on her, (L1-2) or blame her for the drive to violence she inspires in men who are less wise than she (L2-3) (or anyone with courage equal to their passion), creating war between the underdogs and the masters? (L4-5) After all, how could she be expected to be peaceful, With a mind that nobility focused to an elemental force (L6-7) And possessed of deadly unnatural beauty that sets her apart from all others in this age, (L8-9) since she is above us all like a judgment of god? (L10) So being what she is, how could the outcome have been any different than this destiny, the burning of Troy? (L11-12)
Even not knowing the biographical background, I can respond to the wonderful imagery of this poem – “beauty like a tightened bow”, “hurled the little streets..”, “a mind….as a fire”. And this last I would see as the central image, of a force that can translate into actions causing “another Troy to burn”. The apostrophic form of the poem makes it clear the poet feels the course of events was preordained, a grievous calamity falling as the inevitable outcome of a collision between this godlike creature and a mundane world. I love the way Yeats packs his complex imagery within the tight sonnet structure – it responds to careful reading as a result.
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Dear mav: you evidently have your poetic license. I cannot find fault with your exposition of the lines, except to say again that without knowledge of Maud Gonne, the poem makes no sense. She wanted a soldier, not a poet. What's in a name that rhymes with "gun"? "Sie war liebenswürdig, Und er liebte sie. Er aber war nicht liebenswürdig, Und sie liebte ihn nicht." But 'twas better to be a live poet than an executed Major MacBride.
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Well, I guess one of the magic things about language is our individual response to it, Bill. If it doesn't move you, it doesn't work for you and that's it. But surely you can imagine a woman whose beauty leaves you almost speechless, and yet who will cause the walls to fall?
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It is well for the world that there are few Maud Gonnes, beauty and destruction in equal parts.
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But is it just that deadly combination.. beauty and destruction-- that likes Maud to an other irish heros.. Deirdre of the sorrrows, in many ways Helen of troy is a much more passive character than any of the irish queens..
in the The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge) an old irish epic of war and blood shed-- at one point-- on the eve of a great battle, Queen Medb (Meave) of Connaught is brought news that her youngest son has died in one of the skirmishes.. her advisers are sure this news will cause her to reconsider and to call off the planned assault.-- but the queen replies-- "Well, when we started this, we knew it wasn't going to be like hunting larks" and she gets back to her plans for battle.(and this epic is about a war that started as boasting and bragging-pillow talk -- and hurt feelings..)
any reading of irish history will remind you that the irish have a bloody history-- and that the women of ireland have a reputation for steely determination.. my elder sister is named for deirdre-- who led all of ireland into civil war-- i am helen-- an other great woman who figures in an epic battle.. that yeats should have admired Maud (a variation of mebd/meave/mavish) and likened her to helen, is no surprize. certainly the irish have seen there wars as epics no less important than the iliad.. even if the rest of world doesn't (hasn't).
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"For the Great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad." From G.K. Chesterton's poem "The Ballad of the White Horse."
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Queen Meb was said also to have slaughtered her own husband and a band of his followers for having retreated prematurely from a battle. No statement regarding her looks. Incidentally her name points out the problem of pronouncing Irish Gaelic names. I read in an .edu site that Yeats himself evidently mispronounced the name of Cuchulain. I wish I could find a site that gave rules for pronouncing such names. I tried learning Irish, but after the second tape it speeded up so I could not understand it. I gave the books and tapes away;.
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