Social Commentaries

Paudeen

by W. B. Yeats 1865–1939

From Responsibilities (1914)

Social CommentariesThe Mind

Indignant at the fumbling wits, the obscure spite
Of our old Paudeen in his shop, I stumbled blind
Among the stones and thorn trees, under morning light;
Until a curlew cried and in the luminous wind
A curlew answered; and suddenly thereupon I thought
That on the lonely height where all are in God's eye,
There cannot be, confusion of our sound forgot,
A single soul that lacks a sweet crystaline cry.

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Indignant at 'the fumbling wits, the obscure spite' of Dublin, the poet sees a flash of light on the wet stones and finds a single soul that lacks a sweet crystal cry.

MLA

Yeats, W. B. “Paudeen.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/31/.

Chicago

Yeats, W. B. “Paudeen.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/31/.

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