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No Second Troy; Analysis
“No Second Troy” is a poem by William Butler Yeats and it is one of his most celebrated work. The poem is a typical lyric, and it expresses the feelings of poet who is the state of misery and pain. Overall the poem is centered on a single issue of his disappointment, pain, and agony. "Her" in the poem indicates that the poet is addressing the woman he loves. Most of the sentences in the poem are questions which speak of his thoughts that he must not blame his love for all the pain he is suffering from. The poem is the combination of the personal and political passion of the poet and describes that beauty has the power to destroy inner soul of a person as well as a nation in critically mythological perspective.
The opening lines of the poem begin with the personal plane and a rhetorical question, "Why should I blame her” and the answer is implied in the question itself. The poet is a state of misery and pain due to the fact that his love rejects him, many times. In his poem, "her" is referred to Maud Gonne who has not responded to love of Yeats. On numerous occasions, he is being rejected by her, and the number of his poems are directed at her. These lines indicate the pain and misery from which he is going through due to her. The poem reveals the combustible presence of Gonne in Yeats life and the first lines of the poem are his conflicted emotions about Gonne. The poet is unhappy that she has not responded to her love, but at the same time, he argues that he will not blame for the pain and misery in her life. He has been able to squeeze his personal passion beautifully in these lines and in the later sentences he takes he discusses his political passion.
The political passion of the poet is revealed from the third line of the poem, “Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways." Yeats wrote this poem when Ireland was fighting for freedom against England, the poet criticizes Gonne for teaching the common Irish men the violent ways. Speaking of the pain that the lady has caused her, he takes the discussion to the damage he thinks she has caused to innocent common Irish men. From personal concerns with Maud Gonne, he starts commenting on the political concerns that she has taught the revolutionary methods to get freedom for Ireland. Yeats is scornful of the petty violence of those who would ‘hurl the little streets upon the great,' that is, prompt the innocent people to expand violence against British rules which is useless. Initially, after blaming the Irish lady for hurting him cruelly, he is unable to understand the political attitude of Gonne.
Poet is sarcastic towards her act of teaching violence the innocent people who live in "little streets" against those who live on "great streets," the British. In Yeats opinion they need to have a self-identity and courage before stepping into a war of independence, “Had they but courage equal to desire?” Maud is accused of the turmoil of the Irish people. The personal and political passion combines when he discusses Gonne as destruction. He describes Gonne as social destruction and states that she can't be peaceful as she has caused and spread violence. By comparing her with her milieu, he is trying to make a point that her soul is not in the harmony of her social environment and hence she is the source of destruction “That is not natural in an age like this."
The heroic beauty of Maud Gonne is said to be tightened bow and her mind a fire of nobleness using a simile “That nobleness made simple as a fire/ With beauty like a tightened bow." Yeats is sarcastic towards her beauty. The tightened bow represents a tension in her heroic beauty which is the cause of the destruction of others. Her leadership skills, her fierce beauty, stern commitment, and unparalleled bravery reminds poet of Aristocratic Ideals. Her heroic masks contrast with the modern sensibility. But at the same time, the poet doesn't blame her. The poet describes the destructive aspects of beauty in both personal and political terms.
In the end, Helen's image strikes in the mind of the poet, and it answers all the questions in the poem “Was there another Troy for her to burn?” In the ancient Greek mythology, a place Greeks destroyed Troy in the Trojan War and the poet is comparing the Helen of Troy and the Trojan War with the anti-British revolutionary war, both causing violence and destruction. Like Helen, the most beautiful women of Greece who as responsible for the destruction of Troy, Maud Gonne is responsible for Irelands' devastation. The title of the poem is also the referral to Helen Troy which was destroyed at the end of the war.
In a nutshell, the poem is a call towards peace, and it elaborates the poet's personal and political passion. He is full of pain and woe, but because he loves Maud Gonne, he is not willing to blame her for her destruction. By making a comparison of Maud Gonne and Helen of Troy, poem hints the way an alluring beauty can be a cause of the destruction of an inner soul, referring to his heart and to the whole country referring to Ireland. Throughout the poem, Yeats has a negative and sarcastic attitude towards Gonne.
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