Ego Dominus Tuus

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1917from The Wild Swans at Coole85 lines

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Hic

On the grey sand beside the shallow streamUnder your old wind-beaten tower, where stillA lamp burns on beside the open bookThat Michael Robartes left, you walk in the moonAnd though you have passed the best of life still traceEnthralled by the unconquerable delusionMagical shapes.

Ille

By the help of an imageI call to my own opposite, summon allThat I have handled least, least looked upon.

Hic

And I would find myself and not an image.

Ille

That is our modern hope and by its lightWe have lit upon the gentle, sensitive mindAnd lost the old nonchalance of the hand;Whether we have chosen chisel, pen or brushWe are but critics, or but half createTimid, entangled, empty and abashedLacking the countenance of our friends.

Hic

And yetThe chief imagination of ChristendomDante Alighieri so utterly found himselfThat he has made that hollow face of hisMore plain to the mind’s eye than any faceBut that of Christ.

Ille

And did he find himself,Or was the hunger that had made it hollowA hunger for the apple on the boughMost out of reach? and is that spectral imageThe man that Lapo and that Guido knew?I think he fashioned from his oppositeAn image that might have been a stony face,Staring upon a bedouin’s horse-hair roofFrom doored and windowed cliff, or half upturnedAmong the coarse grass and the camel dung.He set his chisel to the hardest stone.Being mocked by Guido for his lecherous life,Derided and deriding, driven outTo climb that stair and eat that bitter bread,He found the unpersuadable justice, he foundThe most exalted lady loved by a man.

Hic

Yet surely there are men who have made their artOut of no tragic war, lovers of life,Impulsive men that look for happinessAnd sing when they have found it.

Ille

No not sing,For those that love the world serve it in action,Grow rich, popular and full of influence,And should they paint or write still it is action:The struggle of the fly in marmalade.The rhetorician would deceive his neighbours,The sentimentalist himself; while artIs but a vision of reality.What portion in the world can the artist haveWho has awakened from the common dreamBut dissipation and despair?

Hic

And yetNo one denies to Keats love of the world;Remember his deliberate happiness.

Ille

His art is happy but who knows his mind?I see a schoolboy when I think of himWith face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window,For certainly he sank into his graveHis senses and his heart unsatisfied,And made⁠—being poor, ailing and ignorant,Shut out from all the luxury of the world,The coarse-bred son of a livery stable-keeper⁠—Luxuriant song.

Hic

Why should you leave the lampBurning alone beside an open book,And trace these characters upon the sands?A style is found by sedentary toilAnd by the imitation of great masters.

Ille

Because I seek an image not a book.Those men that in their writings are most wiseOwn nothing but their blind, stupefied hearts.I call to the mysterious one who yetShall walk the wet sands by the edge of the streamAnd look most like me, being indeed my double,And prove of all imaginable thingsThe most unlike, being my anti-self,And standing by these characters discloseAll that I seek; and whisper it as thoughHe were afraid the birds, who cry aloudTheir momentary cries before it is dawn,Would carry it away to blasphemous men.

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

In brief

Summary

Two voices argue whether art comes from finding yourself or your opposite.

Two speakers, Hic ("this one") and Ille ("that one"), talk by a stream below an old tower at night. Ille is tracing magical shapes in the sand; he says he seeks not himself but his "opposite", an anti-self. Hic answers that modern people want to find themselves, and points to Dante, who seems to have done so completely. Ille replies that Dante's famous hollow face was an image made from his opposite, shaped by hunger, exile and a hopeless love. They turn to Keats: Hic sees a happy poet, Ille a poor, sick schoolboy staring into a sweet-shop window, whose rich poems came from all he lacked. Hic urges patient study of great masters. Ille ends by calling to a mysterious double, most like him and most unlike him, who will reveal all he seeks.

Lines to remember

I call to my own opposite, summon all
The struggle of the fly in marmalade.
Because I seek an image not a book.

Line by line

  1. Lines 1 to 7Hic sets the scene

    Hic describes Ille walking on grey sand by a stream under a "wind-beaten tower", where a lamp still burns beside a book left by Michael Robartes. Though past "the best of life", Ille still traces "Magical shapes", in the grip of an "unconquerable delusion".

  2. Lines 8 to 10Calling the opposite

    Ille's first reply states the poem's central idea. With the help of an image he calls to his "own opposite", to everything he has "handled least, least looked upon". Art, for him, reaches towards what the self is not.

  3. Line 11Hic's wish

    Hic's answer is a single line, and it is the modern view in brief: "And I would find myself and not an image." Self-discovery, not a mask or symbol, is what he wants from art.

  4. Lines 12 to 18The modern mind

    Ille calls that "our modern hope" and says it has made artists gentle and sensitive but cost them "the old nonchalance of the hand". Whatever the tool, "chisel, pen or brush", modern artists are "but critics", timid, entangled and abashed.

  5. Lines 19 to 24Hic on Dante

    Hic offers Dante as proof that an artist can find himself. Dante did it so completely that his "hollow face" is clearer to the mind's eye than any face except Christ's. The long phrase "chief imagination of Christendom" gives him full weight.

  6. Lines 25 to 40Dante's opposite

    Ille asks whether that face shows the real man "that Lapo and that Guido knew". He thinks Dante made an image from his opposite, out of hunger for "the apple on the bough / Most out of reach". Mocked for his "lecherous life" and driven into bitter exile, he found "unpersuadable justice" and the most exalted lady ever loved.

  7. Lines 41 to 44Happy artists

    Hic objects that some artists make their work from no "tragic war" at all. They are "lovers of life", impulsive people who look for happiness "And sing when they have found it".

  8. Lines 45 to 55Action and vision

    Ille denies it. Those who love the world serve it through action and grow rich and influential; even their art is action, "The struggle of the fly in marmalade". The rhetorician deceives others, the sentimentalist himself, while true art is "a vision of reality" that leaves the artist only "dissipation and despair".

  9. Lines 56 to 58Hic on Keats

    Hic plays another card: nobody denies Keats his "love of the world". He asks Ille to remember Keats's "deliberate happiness", the chosen joy of his poems.

  10. Lines 59 to 67The sweet-shop window

    Ille grants that the art is happy but asks "who knows his mind?" He pictures Keats as a schoolboy with his nose "pressed to a sweet-shop window": poor, ailing, shut out from luxury, "The coarse-bred son of a livery stable-keeper". From that hunger came "Luxuriant song".

  11. Lines 68 to 72Hic's advice

    Hic asks why Ille leaves his lamp and book to draw signs in the sand. His own answer is sober and practical: style is found by "sedentary toil" and by imitating "great masters".

  12. Lines 73 to 85The anti-self

    "Because I seek an image not a book." Ille calls to a "mysterious one" who will walk these sands and look most like him, "my double", yet be "my anti-self". This figure will whisper all he seeks, softly, for fear the dawn birds carry it "away to blasphemous men".

Themes

Self and anti-self

The poem's central claim is Ille's: an artist does not express himself but calls up his "own opposite", "my double" who is also "my anti-self". Dante's austere face and Keats's rich music are both read as images of what those men lacked. Hic's wish, "I would find myself", is presented as the timid modern alternative.

Art and suffering

Ille's examples are men whose art grew out of want: Dante's hunger for "the apple on the bough / Most out of reach", his exile and "bitter bread", Keats's "senses and his heart unsatisfied". Art, in this view, is a vision won at the cost of happiness, leaving the artist "dissipation and despair".

Image and book

Hic trusts books: "sedentary toil" and "imitation of great masters". Ille leaves the lamp and the open book to draw "characters upon the sands", saying "I seek an image not a book". The contrast is between learning a style and waiting for a revelation, and the poem leaves Ille with the last word.

Context

The poem was collected in The Wild Swans at Coole (Cuala Press, 1917). Its title comes from Dante's Vita Nuova, where Love appears to Dante in a vision and says "Ego dominus tuus", Latin for "I am your master". Hic and Ille are Latin for "this one" and "that one"; Ille is usually taken as the voice closest to Yeats's own.

The idea of the anti-self, or mask, was central to Yeats's thinking in these years, and he set it out in prose in Per Amica Silentia Lunae (1918), which opens with this poem. Michael Robartes, whose book lies open by the lamp, is a character from Yeats's stories of the 1890s, and he returns in "The Phases of the Moon".

Form

Blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, set as a dialogue with the speakers' names above each speech. Many speeches end or begin in broken half-lines ("And yet", "No not sing"), which gives the feel of real argument, each voice cutting in on the other.

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The Phases of the MoonAn old man cocked his ear upon a bridge ...Read poem The Double Vision of Michael RobartesOn the grey rock of Cashel the mind's eye ...Read poem The Mask"Put off that mask of burning gold ...Read poem