Posted by: alex7 (192.168.128.5)
Date: August 13, 2021 01:29PM

I really need help with the poem "Lines Written in Dejection" By William Butler Yeats please help

Lines Written In Dejection
--William Butler Yeats

WHEN have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies,
For all their broom-sticks and their tears,
Their angry tears, are gone.
The holy centaurs of the hills are vanished;
I have nothing but the embittered sun;
Banished heroic mother moon and vanished,
And now that I have come to fifty years
I must endure the timid sun.


Les

The title smacks of Wordsworth's Lines Written in Early Spring, or maybe Tintern Abbey, or possibly even Cowper's Lines Written During a Period of Insanity, all of which we may assume Yeats had read. Chosen perhaps to indicate merely a wistful musing on the part of the author? I would think so.

Are there dark leopards to be found on the moon? Well, it would certainly be easier to, um, spot them than it would be to invisage the face of a man in the moon (which I have never personally been able to locate).

Anyway, he complains that he no longer sees any leopards there, and laments the now-extinct witches and centaurs (see the Byzantium stuff for more on the loss of yesteryear's beauty). He has nothing left but the 'timid' and 'embittered' sun. Say what? The sun is timid? A boiling fire of atomic fusion that throws out a continuous stream of light and assorted other violent particles? Seems a strange comparison, but still fits the preference for his dreams over the dullness of reality, I guess.

The meter and rhyme scheme are odd, I suspect to again impart a tone of wistfulness to the reader. 'On' is a slant rhyme with 'moon'? 'Bodies' the same with 'ladies'? Why repeat the word 'vanished' at the end of two separate lines? Why repeat tears? And what is that device called in poetry, anyway? It's not anaphora - could be epanalepsis? Timid sun and embittered sun, more of the same.

I am not sure what the OP is looking for, but the above are some of my first thoughts, if they are any help.

I think Hugh is certainly on track with his analysis. The speaker has reached a milestone birthday ("and now that I have come to fifty years") and seems to question the value of continuing to dream at such an age. The moon, leopards, witches, and centaurs are metaphors for dreaming. Timid does seem a strange way to describe the sun. With its unbridled power, the sun will certainly wither the speaker physically and spiritually, and in short order, if it is all that remains for him.

Frankly, I think Yeats should have celebrated his 50th birthday rather than lamenting it in a poem. For my 50th, I went to a strip club with some friends and got blitzed on Beefeater. Much better than trying to find leopards on the moon, although I certainly did have some strange visions later on.

I remember in Keats's nightingale ode that Bacchus is associated with leopards - see line 32 below:

[rpo.library.utoronto.ca]

Still, no reason to think Yeats is lamenting being sober at age 50. Nor do I see a Maud Gonne or an Irish Republic metaphor, though there might be one there. Bartleby suggests brave warriors or even sin, along with the leopard never changing his spots, all of which are less compelling than merely imagined pictures on the moon's surface.

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See Bartleby also for what is likely the correct text:

[www.bartleby.com]

When have I last looked on
The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies
Of the dark leopards of the moon?
All the wild witches, those most noble ladies,
For all their broom-sticks and their tears,
Their angry tears, are gone.
The holy centaurs of the hills are banished;
I have nothing but the harsh sun;
Heroic mother moon has vanished,
And now that I have come to fifty years
I must endure the timid sun.


Here we have repetitions only with tears & sun (for emphasis), and the star at the center of the solar system has become harsh yet timid. Still eleven lines, but the rhymes are now more attractive with abab cada dca.

Hmmm ... star at the center of his universe? Yup, could be dame Maud. She, who once was harsh/violent is now timid/shy?