Saturday 25 August 2012

Poetry, Yeats, the Circus

Nov 4, '08 6:13 PM
for everyone
I love the way this poem starts,
’I sought a theme and sought for it in vain’’;
that just about sums up how I felt this week. I very nearly didn’t contribute because I couldn’t decide on a poem or a theme. Feeling as I did the decision was made for me one I stumbled across this, I only had to read the first line.  The title doesn’t exactly reflect the content of the poem but I thought I would stick with the circus theme for the illustrations. And although the title doesn’t describe the story, it is a very beautiful and fanciful poem.  Hope you all enjoy it.


The Circus Animals' Desertion


William Butler Yeats



I sought a theme and sought for it in vain,
I sought it daily for six weeks or so.
Maybe at last, being but a broken man,
I must be satisfied with my heart, although
Winter and summer till old age began
My circus animals were all on show,
Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot,
Lion and woman and the Lord knows what.

II

What can I but enumerate old themes?
First that sea-rider Oisin led by the nose
Through three enchanted islands, allegorical dreams,
Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose,
Themes of the embittered heart, or so it seems,
That might adorn old songs or courtly shows;
But what cared I that set him on to ride,
I, starved for the bosom of his faery bride?

And then a counter-truth filled out its play,
'The Countess Cathleen' was the name I gave it;
She, pity-crazed, had given her soul away,
But masterful Heaven had intetvened to save it.
I thought my dear must her own soul destroy,
So did fanaticism and hate enslave it,
And this brought forth a dream and soon enough
This dream itself had all my thought and love.

And when the Fool and Blind Man stole the bread
Cuchulain fought the ungovernable sea;
Heart-mysteries there, and yet when all is said
It was the dream itself enchanted me:
Character isolated by a deed
To engross the present and dominate memory.
players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.

III

Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.
 
   

elizelizeliz wrote on Nov 8, '08
I can no undrestend lot tis wort but nise pentins.
sanssouciblogs wrote on Nov 5, '08
Excellent post; poem and your choices of illustration and video, lots of hard work.
I always think of the circus as a metaphor perhaps for illusions in life or the 3-ring ego, id and superego;
it all goes on simultaneously and on different levels..."Heart-mysteries there, and yet when all is said
It was the dream itself enchanted me"
ppiccola wrote on Nov 5, '08
fascinating, this is a great contribution, we are lucky you decided to post at the end otherwise we would have missed such great post! Thank you.

http://ppiccola.multiply.com/journal/item/480/Her_Days...Poetry_Wednesday
eccentricmare wrote on Nov 5, '08
I am a sucker for the classics and this one is a great one.
my favourite bit of this poem is this :
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.
acousticeagle wrote on Nov 5, '08
The circus, and art pertaining to it has a certain fascination. For me I think it is more the 'art' that comes from the circus 'theme' rather than from a circus itself (for I'm not that interested in going to any, but I do have a book about it). So, saying that, it probably interests because of its grotesque kind of nature, the colours, what performers do with their bodies and the use of animals...all grotesque (I use the word with 'artistic' licence), thus a fascinating subject for art.

I think for artists, especially those who love the use of bright colour and strange scenes (like Lautrec) the circus provided ample subject.
starfishred wrote on Nov 4, '08
This is wonderful loretta thanks for sharing.
veryfrank wrote on Nov 4, '08
Most interesting, this is new to me. Your choice is a good one. Thank you.
dianahopeless wrote on Nov 4, '08
Beautiful and fanciful sums it up just perfectly. Glad you decided to share.
jadedruid wrote on Nov 4, '08
This made me smile. I've never written it in English before. Thank you.
lauritasita wrote on Nov 4, '08
I love the poem and the paintings, Loretta ! You worked so hard on this, thank you ! Love, Laurita.

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