Human Dignity
Human Dignity
Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.
In brief
SummaryA rejected lover lies silent, too proud to cry out his pain.
The second poem of "A Man Young and Old". The woman's kindness is like moonlight: it falls equally on everyone and understands nothing, as if his sorrow were only "a scene / Upon a painted wall". So he lies still, "like a bit of stone", under a broken tree. He could ease his pain by shrieking it out, even to a passing bird, but he stays silent "From human dignity".
Lines to remember
Like the moon her kindness is,
Upon a painted wall.
From human dignity.
Line by line
Lines 1 to 6Moonlight kindness
"Like the moon her kindness is": gentle, but the same for all, with "no comprehension" in it. He hesitates even to call it kindness. To her his grief is like a painted scene on a wall, something to look at, not to feel.
Lines 7 to 12Dumb with pride
He becomes like "a bit of stone" under "a broken tree", echoing her "heart of stone" in the previous poem. He could recover if he "shrieked" his agony, even to a bird, but he stays "dumb / From human dignity": pride keeps him silent and keeps him suffering.
Themes
Indifference
The woman is not cruel; she is kind to everyone alike, and that is the pain. Moonlight falls on all things equally and understands none of them. His sorrow becomes to her "a scene / Upon a painted wall", decorative and distant, and the poem shows how impersonal kindness can wound more than anger.
Pride and silence
The title is ironic. "Human dignity" is what stops him shrieking "My heart's agony" and so stops him recovering. He lies like stone under "a broken tree", and the broken tree tells us what his silence hides. Dignity here is both admirable and a kind of prison.
Context
"Human Dignity" is the second poem in "A Man Young and Old", first collected in The Tower (Macmillan, 1928). It carries on directly from "First Love": the moon-like woman is the same, and the lover who found her "heart of stone" now lies "like a bit of stone" himself. The woman is usually read, like the one in "First Love", as drawing on Maud Gonne.
Form
Two six-line stanzas in ballad metre, four-beat lines alternating with three-beat lines, with the short lines rhyming ("call", "all", "wall"; "tree", "agony", "dignity"). The last rhyme falls on the title words, so the poem closes firmly on the pride that silences him.
