Love
No Second Troy
From The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1912)
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
Codex Note
Why should the poet blame the woman who filled his days with misery, taught ignorant men violence, and had a beauty 'like a tightened bow'? 'Was there another Troy for her to burn?'
Cite this poem
MLA
Yeats, W. B. “No Second Troy.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/23/.
Chicago
Yeats, W. B. “No Second Troy.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/23/.
Read this poem with the Codex →