Reading Yeats 'An Acre of Grass'
W.B.Yeats "An Acre Of Grass"
PICTURE and book remain,
An acre of green grass
For air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
Midnight, an old house
Where nothing stirs but a mouse.
My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bonc,
Can make the truth known.
Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Till I am Timon and Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call;
A mind Michael Angelo knew
That can pierce the clouds,
Or inspired by frenzy
Shake the dead in their shrouds;
Forgotten else by mankind,
An old man's eagle mind.
Reading W.B.Yeats poem "An Acre of Grass" after a decade gave a new lease of life. The poem should not be read alone but along with other poems of Yeats like 'The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner', 'Memory', 'Broken Dreams', 'Sailing to Byzantium', 'The Four Ages of Poetry'. Written across different periods of Yeats life , each of these poems is concerned about old age. Yeats reflective approach to old age even in such a poem as 'The Lamentation of the old pensioner' displays his fear of the ensuing phase. Yeats is markedly preoccupied with the flesh and the decay,desolation and dullness that accompanies old age. The word 'picture' and 'book' refer to the peace,rest,poise,calm,serenity that was a part of his happy conjugal life with George Hyde-Lees in the Norman Towers.The word 'acre' however is significant here - on the one hand it refers to the small plot of green land for fresh breath and exercise and at the same time suggests the confinement of the poet from the wide expanse to the narrow and small acre.Midnight at once recalls the 'stroke of midnight' in 'The Four Ages of Poetry" of the time that is slowly fleeting away and soon to end. The word 'old' blends the ages. The stirring of the mouse in the old house signifies the loneliness of a house full of life that with age has decayed. As a poet Yeats believed in the wide expanse of the mind and resource of the mind which is forever active. The old house may recall the mind which has now become old due to the rest and calm.
The poet intends to restore and renovate the old house.But what is the truth that cannot be stirred?This truth is the understanding of the true spirit of the mind.- the capacity to rekindle the flame of inspiration at different periods of time. Yeats intends to transcend the barriers of time and work his rest and poise into a frenzy, an ecstasy, a madness - that will break the shackles of time. He draws his poetic inspiration from Timon, Lear, Blake, Michael Angelo who defied the rules of time and place in which they lived for the truth they believed in and finally returned victorious - with a mystical insight denied to others. Yeats wishes for the same mystical insight and knowledge of truth. Therefore it is not the wings of dove that Yeats aspires for but the eyes of an eagle .
An acre of green grass
For air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
Midnight, an old house
Where nothing stirs but a mouse.
My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bonc,
Can make the truth known.
Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Till I am Timon and Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Till Truth obeyed his call;
A mind Michael Angelo knew
That can pierce the clouds,
Or inspired by frenzy
Shake the dead in their shrouds;
Forgotten else by mankind,
An old man's eagle mind.
Reading W.B.Yeats poem "An Acre of Grass" after a decade gave a new lease of life. The poem should not be read alone but along with other poems of Yeats like 'The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner', 'Memory', 'Broken Dreams', 'Sailing to Byzantium', 'The Four Ages of Poetry'. Written across different periods of Yeats life , each of these poems is concerned about old age. Yeats reflective approach to old age even in such a poem as 'The Lamentation of the old pensioner' displays his fear of the ensuing phase. Yeats is markedly preoccupied with the flesh and the decay,desolation and dullness that accompanies old age. The word 'picture' and 'book' refer to the peace,rest,poise,calm,serenity that was a part of his happy conjugal life with George Hyde-Lees in the Norman Towers.The word 'acre' however is significant here - on the one hand it refers to the small plot of green land for fresh breath and exercise and at the same time suggests the confinement of the poet from the wide expanse to the narrow and small acre.Midnight at once recalls the 'stroke of midnight' in 'The Four Ages of Poetry" of the time that is slowly fleeting away and soon to end. The word 'old' blends the ages. The stirring of the mouse in the old house signifies the loneliness of a house full of life that with age has decayed. As a poet Yeats believed in the wide expanse of the mind and resource of the mind which is forever active. The old house may recall the mind which has now become old due to the rest and calm.
The poet intends to restore and renovate the old house.But what is the truth that cannot be stirred?This truth is the understanding of the true spirit of the mind.- the capacity to rekindle the flame of inspiration at different periods of time. Yeats intends to transcend the barriers of time and work his rest and poise into a frenzy, an ecstasy, a madness - that will break the shackles of time. He draws his poetic inspiration from Timon, Lear, Blake, Michael Angelo who defied the rules of time and place in which they lived for the truth they believed in and finally returned victorious - with a mystical insight denied to others. Yeats wishes for the same mystical insight and knowledge of truth. Therefore it is not the wings of dove that Yeats aspires for but the eyes of an eagle .
Thank you so much.
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