I should write an essay about the Crazy Jane poems by W. B.Yeats for university.
But I'm in big trouble with the one called "Crazy Jane grown old looks at the dancers". I thought about it a long time, but I don't get the meaning. I even don't know what kind of "ivory image" is talked about. Is there anyone who knows s.th. about the poem?

And is there anyone out there who can tell me, if there ist a general message behind all of the crazy jane poems?

It would be really great if I could get some help.
thanks a lot!

Stereobug, there is some information here:

[lorenwebster.net]


Les

Here's the poem.

pam

Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks At The Dancers
by William Butler Yeats

I found that ivory image there
Dancing with her chosen youth,
But when he wound her coal-black hair
As though to strangle her, no scream
Or bodily movement did I dare,
Eyes under eyelids did so gleam;
Love is like the lion's tooth.

When She, and though some said she played
I said that she had danced heart's truth,
Drew a knife to strike him dead,
I could but leave him to his fate;
For no matter what is said
They had all that had their hate;
Love is like the lion's tooth.

Did he die or did she die?
Seemed to die or died they both?
God be with the times when I
Cared not a thraneen for what chanced
So that I had the limbs to try
Such a dance as there was danced -
Love is like the lion's tooth.

I found that ivory image there
Dancing with her chosen youth,
But when he wound her coal-black hair
As though to strangle her, no scream
Or bodily movement did I dare,
Eyes under eyelids did so gleam;
Love is like the lion's tooth.

When She, and though some said she played
I said that she had danced heart's truth,
Drew a knife to strike him dead,
I could but leave him to his fate;
For no matter what is said
They had all that had their hate;
Love is like the lion's tooth.

Did he die or did she die?
Seemed to die or died they both?
God be with the times when I
Cared not a thraneen for what chanced
So that I had the limbs to try
Such a dance as there was danced -
Love is like the lion's tooth.


Thraneen appears to be a small (in value) coin of some sort. The repetend, Love is like the lion's tooth, was likely in italics, so one must assume that is the message WBY is trying to get across. I couldn't find it in any quote pages (though I did not search any bibles), except folks who were quoting Yeats. If memory serves, the Crazy Jane stuff was marked as Songs of some sort, so one assumes they are intended to be accompanied with music.

Again musing from memory, Jane also had conversations with a Bishop and about some lad named Jack to whom she took a fancy. Jack apparently used her and abused her and took off when he was done. The Bishop kept telling her to mend her ways, but she was too earthy a chick to be fooled by lessons in life from one who never experienced it.

Strangling by hair smacks of Browning's Porphyria's Lover. The dance reminds of how to tell the dancer from the dance from Among School Children.

Oh, yeah, the meaning. Beats the hell outta me.

Oops! Sorry about the double post of the poem, Pam. I wrote a few sentences then came back and finished after running an errand, not bothering to refresh the page.

Oh thanks a lot for your replies so far.
I'll give my best to finish the essay this week.
If there are some other ideas, post them...

The 'Love is like the lion's tooth' reminds me of the Biblical 'How sharper than a serpent's tooth is a thankless child.' Also, I think that the ivory image is a statue that Jane has seen and is musing on.

pam

Stereobug, if you are at a University/college you might try the college library and try to find this article from the Yeats Review. It might give you some insight into the symbolism of that phrase.

Little, Matthew. "The Lion's Tooth in Yeats's `Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks at the Dancers'." Yeats Eliot Review 6.i (1979): 51-53.


Les

@les:

I'd love to read this article, but I'm a student from germany and our university library isn't quit as good as it should be. ;-) I didn't find any usable book for my research.
that's why I'm looking for help via internet.
but thank you for your idea, anyway!

the more I think about it, I realize that my main problem is the line:

"God be with the times when I
cared not a thraneen for what chanced"

I don't know if it depends on my sketchy language knowledge (as a german student ;-) ), but I don't get the meaning of this part!

any ideas?

Well, since no one will be able to prove any given interpretation incorrect, we should feel free to speculate at will. I could probably make a case for Crazy Jane being Yeats himself, Maud Gonne the 'ivory image' with the black hair, and John MacBride the chosen youth.

Similarly, Jane could be staring at two ivory figures dancing in a menagerie collection of some sort. She is a (pick your favorite deity) figure who observes the scene but is powerless to do anything about it. She wishes she were like those figurines:

God be with the times when I
Cared not a thraneen for what chanced
So that I had the limbs to try
Such a dance as there was danced -

She used to be such a free spirit, but is old now. The repeated theme of love being like a lion's tooth can be interpreted simply as, 'love bites', or perhaps more successfully, 'love bites deeply', or 'love hurts', or whatever.

"God be with the times when I
Cared not a thraneen for what chanced
So that I had the limbs to try
Such a dance as there was danced -"

I would interpret this as 'Back in the good old days, I didn't worry about what would happen, as long as I could dance and be happy.'



pam

Yup, makes sense. Also, consider if Crazy Jane is in fact the ivory image, she looking back in time at an earlier version of herself. That would make Jack the Journeyman (or another long lost lover) the other participant. Much simpler that way; the three stanzas serving to prove the refrain.

Worthwhile article here:
[www.poetrymagazines.org.uk]

[And thraneen crops up in Synge's Playboy]



Stephen

Thanks, Stephen. I confess I wondered about Blake's influence on the Jane songs, but I could not find the consistency necessary to infer they were all take offs from the Songs of Innocence & Experience.

So, what did we end up with - Jane is looking at her own ivory image (perhaps in a wedding gown) in an old black & white photograph, reliving the ancient memories of dancing with someone who is long gone (although perhaps not really dead)?

Hey, Im lost with this poem too, but i think that the talk of strangling and striking 'him dead' is all about the harsh relationship he had with Maude Gonne, he was desperately in love with her and she did not return this love, I think he was trying to strangle love, to stop it somehow, but even old age does not take away the feelings of love as he still thinks back to it. Memory keeps it there, the lions tooth is the only way he can describe it as he has only ever been hurt by it, thats my interpretation anyway.