“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Introduction

• Read the full text of “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Summary

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Themes

• 

  Art, Fame, and Posterity

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-31
  • Lines 32-41
  • Lines 42-65
• 

  The Power and Limits of Poetry

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 24-29
  • Lines 34-41
  • Lines 46-65
• 

  Human Tragedy and Suffering

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 5-8
  • Lines 24-31
  • Line 32
  • Lines 34-36
  • Lines 46-65

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”

• Lines 1-6

  He disappeared in ...
  ... dark cold day.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 7-11

  Far from his ...
  ... from his poems.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 12-17

  But for him ...
  ... became his admirers.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 18-23

  Now he is ...
  ... of the living.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 24-29

  But in the ...
  ... something slightly unusual.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 30-31

  What instruments we ...
  ... dark cold day.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 32-34

  You were silly ...
  ... Yourself.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 34-36

  Mad Ireland hurt ...
  ... makes nothing happen:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 36-41

  it survives ...
  ... happening, a mouth.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 42-45

  Earth, receive an ...
  ... of its poetry.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 46-49

  In the nightmare ...
  ... in its hate;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 50-53

  Intellectual disgrace ...
  ... in each eye.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 54-57

  Follow, poet, follow ...
  ... us to rejoice;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 58-61

  With the farming ...
  ... rapture of distress;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 62-65

  In the deserts ...
  ... how to praise.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Symbols

• 

  Winter/Cold

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-6: “He disappeared in the dead of winter: / The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted, / And snow disfigured the public statues; / The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day. / What instruments we have agree / The day of his death was a dark cold day.”
  • Lines 30-31: “What instruments we have agree / The day of his death was a dark cold day.”
  • Line 46: “In the nightmare of the dark”
• 

  Wolves/Forests

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 8: “The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,”
• 

  The Peasant River

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 9: “The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;”
  • Lines 36-41: “it survives / In the valley of its making where executives / Would never want to tamper, flows on south / From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs, / Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives, / A way of happening, a mouth.”
• 

  Statues

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 3: “And snow disfigured the public statues;”

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  Where allusion appears in the poem:

  • Line 9: “The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;”
  • Line 20: “To find his happiness in another kind of wood”
  • Lines 34-35: “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry. / Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,”
  • Lines 42-45: “Earth, receive an honoured guest: / William Yeats is laid to rest. / Let the Irish vessel lie / Emptied of its poetry.”
  • Lines 52-53: “And the seas of pity lie / Locked and frozen in each eye.”
  • Lines 58-59: “With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse,”

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  Where repetition appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “dead”
  • Line 2: “The,” “frozen,” “the”
  • Line 4: “The,” “dying,” “day”
  • Lines 5-6: “What instruments we have agree / The day of his death was a dark cold day.”
  • Line 8: “The”
  • Line 9: “The”
  • Line 11: “death,” “poet”
  • Line 14: “The,” “of his”
  • Line 15: “The,” “of his”
  • Line 17: “The,” “of his”
  • Line 19: “And”
  • Line 21: “And”
  • Line 22: “dead”
  • Line 26: “And”
  • Line 27: “And”
  • Line 28: “think of,” “day”
  • Line 29: “thinks of,” “day”
  • Lines 30-31: “What instruments we have agree / The day of his death was a dark cold day.”
  • Line 34: “Mad,” “Ireland,” “poetry”
  • Line 35: “Ireland,” “madness”
  • Line 36: “poetry,” “makes,” “happen,” “it survives”
  • Line 37: “making”
  • Line 40: “it survives”
  • Line 41: “happening”
  • Line 44: “Let the”
  • Line 45: “poetry”
  • Line 46: “In the,” “dark”
  • Line 48: “And the”
  • Line 52: “And the”
  • Line 53: “frozen”
  • Line 54: “Follow,” “poet,” “follow”
  • Line 55: “the,” “of the”
  • Line 56: “With”
  • Line 58: “With,” “the,” “of”
  • Line 59: “of the”
  • Line 61: “In”
  • Line 62: “In the,” “of the”
  • Line 63: “Let the”
  • Line 64: “In the,” “of”

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Line 4: “The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.”
  • Line 9: “The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;”
  • Lines 14-17: “The provinces of his body revolted, / The squares of his mind were empty, / Silence invaded the suburbs, / The current of his feeling failed;”
  • Lines 20-21: “To find his happiness in another kind of wood / And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.”
  • Lines 22-23: “The words of a dead man / Are modified in the guts of the living.”
  • Line 25: “When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the bourse,”
  • Line 27: “And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom”
  • Lines 36-41: “it survives / In the valley of its making where executives / Would never want to tamper, flows on south / From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs, / Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives, / A way of happening, a mouth.”
  • Line 42: “Earth, receive an honoured guest:”
  • Lines 44-45: “Let the Irish vessel lie / Emptied of its poetry.”
  • Lines 46-47: “In the nightmare of the dark / All the dogs of Europe bark,”
  • Line 49: “Each sequestered in its hate;”
  • Lines 52-53: “And the seas of pity lie / Locked and frozen in each eye.”
  • Lines 54-55: “Follow, poet, follow right / To the bottom of the night,”
  • Lines 58-59: “With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse,”
  • Lines 62-65: “In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start, / In the prison of his days / Teach the free man how to praise.”

• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

  • Lines 7-29
  • Lines 34-35
  • Lines 42-53

• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  Where apostrophe appears in the poem:

  • Lines 32-34: “You were silly like us; your gift survived it all: / The parish of rich women, physical decay, / Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.”
  • Lines 42-45: “Earth, receive an honoured guest: / William Yeats is laid to rest. / Let the Irish vessel lie / Emptied of its poetry.”
  • Lines 54-65: “Follow, poet, follow right / To the bottom of the night, / With your unconstraining voice / Still persuade us to rejoice; / With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse, / Sing of human unsuccess / In a rapture of distress; / In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start, / In the prison of his days / Teach the free man how to praise.”

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• The dead of winter
• Disfigured
• Mercury
• Mouth of the dying day
• The peasant river
• Quays
• Provinces
• Revolted
• Current of his feeling
• Affections
• Code of conscience
• Brokers
• Bourse
• Your gift
• Parish
• Mad Ireland
• Executives
• Tamper
• Ranches
• Mouth
• Vessel
• Dogs of Europe
• Sequestered
• Unconstraining
• Vineyard
• Unsuccess

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “He disappeared in the dead of winter:”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Speaker

“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”

More “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” Resources

• External Resources

  • An Auden Documentary — Watch a short film about Auden's life, poetry, and historical period.

  • The Poet's Life — An introduction to Auden's life and work, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

  • Auden and Political Poetry — Read about Auden's complex relationship to his own political poems.

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to W. H. Auden read "In Memory of W. B. Yeats."

  • Auden's "Trial" of Yeats — Read Auden's 1939 essay "The Public v. the Late Mr William Butler Yeats," in which he subjects Yeats's legacy to a mock trial.

  • Who Was W. B. Yeats? — An introduction to the subject of Auden's elegy.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by W. H. Auden

  • As I Walked Out One Evening

  • Epitaph on a Tyrant

  • Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks)

  • Lullaby

  • Musée des Beaux Arts

  • Partition

  • Refugee Blues

  • September 1, 1939

  • The Capital

  • The More Loving One

  • The Shield of Achilles

  • The Unknown Citizen