What does this stanza mean ? A short love/emotion ? Please help . Thanks

'Ah, do not mourn,' he said,
'That we are tired, for other loves await us;
Hate on and love through unrepining hours.
Before us lies eternity; our souls
Are love, and a continual farewell.

Ephemera - William Butler Yeats

It always helps with Yeats to look at the whole poem.

Ephemera
by William Butler Yeats

"YOUR eyes that once were never weary of mine
Are bowed in sotrow under pendulous lids,
Because our love is waning."
And then She:
"Although our love is waning, let us stand
By the lone border of the lake once more,
Together in that hour of gentleness
When the poor tired child, passion, falls asleep.
How far away the stars seem, and how far
Is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart!"
Pensive they paced along the faded leaves,
While slowly he whose hand held hers replied:
"Passion has often worn our wandering hearts."
The woods were round them, and the yellow leaves
Fell like faint meteors in the gloom, and once
A rabbit old and lame limped down the path;
Autumn was over him: and now they stood
On the lone border of the lake once more:
Turning, he saw that she had thrust dead leaves
Gathered in silence, dewy as her eyes,
In bosom and hair.
"Ah, do not mourn," he said,
"That we are tired, for other loves await us;
Hate on and love through unrepining hours.
Before us lies eternity; our souls
Are love, and a continual farewell."

My reading is that Yeats is seeing love as a 'circle of life.' This relationship is ending, but others will come along, and we may love each other again someday. (perhaps in eternity?)

pam

It seems like Yeats is giving recgnition to the double pull of love. First, that it is our entrance into eternity, our escape from what passes in daily life. Bur second, that love, for us humans, it perhaps the most transient emotion of all: it is always on the verge of passing. We love forever and for only the moment.

Peter

How would one scan this poem?

Blank verse. Non-rhyming iambic pentameter. This forum does not (easily) allow the proper formatting of the lines, so where you see less than 10 syllables, make the line a part of the one before or after. When lines do not fit the iambic pentameter scheme, Yeats was merely making 'substitutions', mostly trochaic or anapestic feet, to keep the reader awake.

HELP ME ALALIZE THIS POEM PLEASE

Do not add new queries to existing threads. Go to New Topic.

Stephen