Written in 1938, a year of ominous upheaval in Europe, W. B. Yeats's "Lapis Lazuli" meditates on the rise and fall of civilizations and the redemptive role of the artist in society. As war looms on the horizon, the speaker mocks "hysterical" people who treat art as irrelevant—or even irresponsible in times of crisis. The speaker insists that artists' "Gaiety," or creative exuberance, "transfigur[es]" the horror of mass violence, just as Shakespearean heroes' vitality takes the edge off their individual tragedies. The speaker also points out that many civilizations have collapsed throughout history and that artists always come along to help rebuild. Expanding on these ideas, the speaker describes a carved "Lapis Lazuli" stone depicting three men and a bird, "a symbol of longevity." The speaker treats the carving itself as proof of art's longevity, and of the broader perspective it offers on history's "tragic scene." "Lapis Lazuli" appears in New Poems (1938), the last collection Yeats published before his death in 1939—which was also the year World War II broke out.

• Read the full text of “Lapis Lazuli”

• “Lapis Lazuli” Summary

• “Lapis Lazuli” Themes

  • 

    Tragedy and Joy

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-56
  • 

    The Redemptive Power of Art

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-56
  • 

    The Death and Birth of Civilizations

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-8
    • Lines 25-56

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Lapis Lazuli”

  • Before Line 1, Lines 1-3

    (for Harry Clifton) ...
    ... are always gay,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-8

    For everybody knows ...
    ... lie beaten flat.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-11

    All perform their ...
    ... Ophelia, that Cordelia;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-17

    Yet they, should ...
    ... all that dread.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 18-24

    All men have ...
    ... or an ounce.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-28

    On their own ...
    ... went to rack:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 29-34

    No handiwork of ...
    ... but a day;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 35-36

    All things fall ...
    ... again are gay.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 37-42

    Two Chinamen, behind ...
    ... a musical instrument.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 43-49

    Every discolouration of ...
    ... Chinamen climb towards,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 49-56

    and I ...
    ... eyes, are gay.

    

    

    

    

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• “Lapis Lazuli” Symbols

  • 

    Callimachus's Lamp

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 33-34: “His long lamp chimney shaped like the stem / Of a slender palm, stood but a day;”
  • 

    The Carving

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 37-56: “Two Chinamen, behind them a third, / Are carved in Lapis Lazuli, / Over them flies a long-legged bird / A symbol of longevity; / The third, doubtless a serving-man, / Carries a musical instrument. / Every discolouration of the stone, / Every accidental crack or dent / Seems a water-course or an avalanche, / Or lofty slope where it still snows / Though doubtless plum or cherry-branch / Sweetens the little half-way house / Those Chinamen climb towards, and I / Delight to imagine them seated there; / There, on the mountain and the sky, / On all the tragic scene they stare. / One asks for mournful melodies; / Accomplished fingers begin to play. / Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes, / Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.”

• “Lapis Lazuli” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-56

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 6-8
    • Lines 9-24
    • Lines 29-34
    • Lines 37-49

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “of”
    • Line 3: “Of,” “gay”
    • Line 4: “knows,” “know”
    • Line 9: “tragic”
    • Line 10: “There,” “Hamlet,” “there,” “Lear”
    • Line 11: “That's,” “that”
    • Line 13: “stage,” “drop”
    • Line 16: “Hamlet,” “Lear,” “are gay”
    • Line 17: “Gaiety”
    • Line 20: “Tragedy”
    • Line 21: “Hamlet,” “Lear”
    • Line 25: “On,” “on”
    • Line 26: “back,” “back,” “back,” “back”
    • Line 35: “built,” “again”
    • Line 36: “build,” “again,” “are gay”
    • Line 37: “Chinamen”
    • Line 43: “Every”
    • Line 44: “Every”
    • Line 49: “Chinamen”
    • Line 52: “tragic”
    • Line 55: “Their eyes,” “their eyes”
    • Line 56: “Their,” “eyes,” “are gay”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “have heard,” “hysterical,” “say”
    • Line 2: “sick,” “palette”
    • Line 3: “poets”
    • Line 4: “knows,” “know”
    • Line 5: “nothing,” “drastic”
    • Line 7: “Billy bomb-balls”
    • Line 8: “beaten”
    • Line 14: “prominent part,” “play”
    • Line 19: “Black,” “Heaven,” “blazing,” “head”
    • Line 21: “rambles,” “rages”
    • Line 28: “Then they,” “their,” “wisdom went”
    • Line 29: “handiwork”
    • Line 30: “Who handled”
    • Line 31: “seemed”
    • Line 32: “sea-wind swept,” “stands”
    • Line 33: “long lamp,” “stem”
    • Line 34: “slender,” “stood”
    • Line 38: “Lapis Lazuli”
    • Line 39: “long-legged”
    • Line 40: “longevity”
    • Line 46: “slope,” “still snows”
    • Line 48: “half-way house”
    • Line 51: “sky”
    • Line 52: “scene,” “stare”
    • Line 53: “mournful melodies”
    • Line 55: “mid many”
    • Line 56: “glittering,” “gay”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 6-7: “Aeroplane and Zeppelin will come out, / Pitch like King Billy bomb-balls in”
    • Lines 29-30: “No handiwork of Callimachus / Who handled marble as if it were bronze,”
    • Lines 33-34: “His long lamp chimney shaped like the stem / Of a slender palm,”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 9: “All perform their tragic play,”
    • Line 19: “Heaven blazing into the head:”
    • Lines 22-23: “And all the drop scenes drop at once / Upon a hundred thousand stages,”

• “Lapis Lazuli” 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.

  • Hysterical
  • Palette
  • Fiddle-bow
  • Gay/Gaiety
  • Drastic
  • Aeroplane and Zeppelin
  • King Billy
  • Bomb-balls
  • Hamlet, Lear, Ophelia, Cordelia
  • Prominent part
  • Transfiguring
  • Wrought
  • Uttermost
  • Drop scenes
  • On shipboard
  • Camel-back, horse-back, ass-back, mule-back
  • Went to rack
  • Handiwork
  • Callimachus
  • Draperies
  • Lamp chimney
  • Lapis Lazuli
  • Longevity
  • Serving-man
  • Discolouration
  • Water-course
  • Plum or cherry-branch
  • Half-way house
  • Mid
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “I have heard that hysterical women say”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Lapis Lazuli”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Lapis Lazuli” Speaker

• “Lapis Lazuli” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Lapis Lazuli”

• More “Lapis Lazuli” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of Yeats's "Lapis Lazuli" by another famous 20th-century poet: Dylan Thomas.

    • The Lapis Lazuli Carving — Pictures of, and commentary on, the lapis lazuli carving that inspired the poem.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — Read a biography of Yeats at the Poetry Foundation.

    • About Callimachus — More on the sculptor via Encyclopedia Britannica.

    • Europe in the 1930s — An explainer film on the events that form the background of the poem, including the rise of dictators and the march toward war in 1930s Europe.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

    • Adam's Curse

    • Among School Children

    • An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

    • A Prayer for my Daughter

    • Byzantium

    • Easter, 1916

    • He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

    • In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

    • Leda and the Swan

    • Sailing to Byzantium

    • September 1913

    • The Lake Isle of Innisfree

    • The Second Coming

    • The Song of Wandering Aengus

    • The Wild Swans at Coole

    • To a Shade

    • When You Are Old

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