A Memory of Youth

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1914from Responsibilities21 lines

The moments passed as at a play,I had the wisdom love brings forth;I had my share of mother witAnd yet for all that I could say,And though I had her praise for it,A cloud blown from the cut-throat northSuddenly hid love’s moon away.

Believing every word I saidI praised her body and her mindTill pride had made her eyes grow bright,And pleasure made her cheeks grow red,And vanity her footfall light,Yet we, for all that praise, could findNothing but darkness overhead.

We sat as silent as a stone,We knew, though she’d not said a word,That even the best of love must die,And had been savagely undoneWere it not that love upon the cryOf a most ridiculous little birdTore from the clouds his marvellous moon.

Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.

In brief

Summary

A lover remembers an evening when love nearly died and was rescued.

The speaker looks back on an evening with the woman he loved. He had wit, wisdom and her praise, yet a cold cloud from the north hid "love's moon". He praised her body and mind until her eyes shone and her cheeks reddened, but for all that praise the two of them saw "Nothing but darkness overhead". They sat in silence, both sure that "even the best of love must die". Then, at the cry of "a most ridiculous little bird", Love tore the moon free of the clouds. The poem is rueful and a little comic: love survives by luck, not by eloquence.

Lines to remember

Suddenly hid love's moon away.

That even the best of love must die,

Of a most ridiculous little bird

Line by line

Lines 1 to 7A cloud over the moon
Everything seemed to be going well. The evening passed "as at a play", and he had wisdom, "mother wit" and her praise. Yet a cloud "from the cut-throat north" suddenly hid "love's moon". The weather stands for a mood that neither of them can explain or control.
Lines 8 to 14Praise is not enough
He praises her body and mind, and she responds: pride brightens her eyes, pleasure reddens her cheeks, vanity lightens her step. The list of rising feelings builds hope, but the stanza ends flatly on "Nothing but darkness overhead". Flattery can please her without bringing love back.
Lines 15 to 21Saved by a bird
They sit "as silent as a stone", each knowing that love can die. It would have been "savagely undone" if Love had not heard the cry of "a most ridiculous little bird" and torn "his marvellous moon" from the clouds. The rescue is sudden, absurd and joyful.

Themes

The fragility of love

Love here can vanish without cause. A cloud "Suddenly hid love's moon away", and by the last stanza both lovers know "That even the best of love must die". The poem refuses to blame either of them. Love's weather simply turns, and the speaker's skill with words counts for nothing against it.

Chance and grace

The recovery is as unexplained as the loss. Not his praise but "the cry / Of a most ridiculous little bird" brings the moon back. Calling the bird "ridiculous" keeps the ending wry rather than sentimental: the rescue of love is a gift, and a slightly comic one.

Context

The poem was collected in Responsibilities, published by the Cuala Press in May 1914. It sits in a group of poems in that book that look back on love from middle age, beside "Fallen Majesty" and "Friends". The woman is not named; the poem is usually read as a memory of Maud Gonne, whom Yeats loved for many years without return.

Form

Three seven-line stanzas of four-beat lines, each rhymed ABCACBA, so the first and last lines frame the stanza ("play" and "away", "said" and "overhead"). In the last stanza the frame rhyme loosens into "stone", "undone" and "moon", a slight wobble that suits a love only just rescued.