A Thought from Propertius

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1917from The Wild Swans at Coole8 lines

She might, so noble from headTo great shapely kneesThe long flowing line,Have walked to the altarThrough the holy imagesAt Pallas Athene’s side,Or been fit spoil for a centaurDrunk with the unmixed wine.

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

In brief

Summary

A noble beauty fit for a goddess's procession, or a centaur's plunder.

In a single sentence, the poet describes a woman so noble in body, from head to "great shapely knees", that she might have walked to the altar at the side of the goddess Pallas Athene. Or, the last two lines add, she might have been "fit spoil" for a centaur drunk on unmixed wine. The two pictures, sacred procession and wild abduction, show two sides of her beauty: stately and dangerous.

Lines to remember

At Pallas Athene's side,

Drunk with the unmixed wine.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 6At Athene's side
The description moves down her body, "from head / To great shapely knees", and settles on "The long flowing line" of her figure. Such a woman could have walked "Through the holy images" beside Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom, as a worthy companion.
Lines 7 to 8Spoil for a centaur
The ending swings to the opposite extreme: she might instead have been "fit spoil for a centaur / Drunk with the unmixed wine". Her beauty invites violence as well as worship, and the poem leaves both pictures standing.

Themes

Heroic beauty

Her beauty is on a grand, classical scale: "so noble", with "great shapely knees" and "The long flowing line". It belongs in myth, beside a goddess, not in ordinary life. The poem praises her as a figure out of ancient sculpture.

Order and wildness

Athene stands for wisdom and ceremony; the centaur, half man and half beast, drunk on neat wine, for appetite without restraint. Setting them side by side suggests that great beauty belongs to both worlds and could have been claimed by either.

Context

The poem was collected in The Wild Swans at Coole, published by the Cuala Press in 1917. Propertius was a Roman love poet of the first century BC, and the poem is Yeats's free adaptation of a passage from him rather than a close translation. The drunken centaur recalls the Greek story of the centaurs who, drunk at a wedding feast, tried to carry off the bride. The woman is not named.

Form

Eight short lines, a single sentence, with lines of two or three beats. Rhymes are faint and far apart ("line" and "wine", "knees" and "images", "altar" and "centaur"), which gives the poem the loose feel of a translation or free imitation.