Analysis of The Statues
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
PYTHAGORAS planned it. Why did the people stare?
His numbers, though they moved or seemed to move
In marble or in bronze, lacked character.
But boys and girls, pale from the imagined love
Of solitary beds, knew what they were,
That passion could bring character enough,
And pressed at midnight in some public place
Live lips upon a plummet-measured face.
No! Greater than Pythagoras, for the men
That with a mallet or a chisel' modelled these
Calculations that look but casual flesh, put down
All Asiatic vague immensities,
And not the banks of oars that swam upon
The many-headed foam at Salamis.
Europe put off that foam when Phidias
Gave women dreams and dreams their looking-glass.
One image crossed the many-headed, sat
Under the tropic shade, grew round and slow,
No Hamlet thin from eating flies, a fat
Dreamer of the Middle Ages. Empty eyeballs knew
That knowledge increases unreality, that
Mirror on mirror mirrored is all the show.
When gong and conch declare the hour to bless
Grimalkin crawls to Buddha's emptiness.
When Pearse summoned Cuchulain to his side.
What stalked through the post Office? What intellect,
What calculation, number, measurement, replied?
We Irish, born into that ancient sect
But thrown upon this filthy modern tide
And by its formless spawning fury wrecked,
Climb to our proper dark, that we may trace
The lineaments of a plummet-measured face.
April 9,
Scheme | ABCDCEFFGHIFJHFKLMLNLMOPQRQRQRFFS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110101 1101111111 0101011100 11011100101 110011110 1101110001 011101101 1101010101 11011101 11010101011 010111100111 101011 0101111101 0101011010 10111111 1101011101 1101010101 1001011101 1101110101 101010101011 11001001001 10110101101 11010101011 11110100 11101111 1110110110 10101010001 1101011101 1101110101 011110101 11101011111 011010101 10 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,368 |
Words | 233 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 33 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,117 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 233 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 02, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 103 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Statues" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39554/the-statues>.
Discuss this William Butler Yeats poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In