In Memory of Alfred Pollexfen

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1917from The Wild Swans at Coole39 lines

Earlier titled "In Memory"

Five-and-twenty years have goneSince old William PollexfenLaid his strong bones down in deathBy his wife ElizabethIn the grey stone tomb he made.And after twenty years they laidIn that tomb by him and her,His son George, the astrologer;And Masons drove from miles awayTo scatter the Acacia sprayUpon a melancholy manWho had ended where his breath began.Many a son and daughter liesFar from the customary skies,The Mall and Eades’s grammar school,In London or in Liverpool;But where is laid the sailor John?That so many lands had known:Quiet lands or unquiet seasWhere the Indians trade or Japanese.He never found his rest ashore,Moping for one voyage more.Where have they laid the sailor John?And yesterday the youngest son,A humorous, unambitious man,Was buried near the astrologer;And are we now in the tenth year?Since he, who had been contented long,A nobody in a great throng,Decided he would journey home,Now that his fiftieth year had come,And “Mr. Alfred” be againUpon the lips of common menWho carried in their memoryHis childhood and his family.At all these death-beds women heardA visionary white sea-birdLamenting that a man should die;And with that cry I have raised my cry.

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

In brief

Summary

An elegy for Yeats's uncle that remembers a whole Sligo family.

The poem begins not with Alfred but with his parents, old William Pollexfen and his wife Elizabeth, laid in the grey stone tomb William built. Their son George, the astrologer, followed them twenty years later, mourned by Masons who drove from miles away. Other sons and daughters lie far from home, and the sailor John was never brought back from the sea at all. Only then does the poem reach Alfred, the youngest, buried "yesterday": a humorous, unambitious man who spent years unknown in a crowd, then came home at fifty to be "Mr. Alfred" again among people who remembered his family. It closes with the white sea-bird heard at each death, and the poet adds his own cry to its lament.

Lines to remember

Who had ended where his breath began.

A nobody in a great throng,

And with that cry I have raised my cry.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 5The grandparents' tomb
The poem opens a quarter of a century back, with "old William Pollexfen" laying "his strong bones down" beside his wife in a tomb "he made". The builder of the tomb is the founder of the family story.
Lines 6 to 12George the astrologer
George Pollexfen, "the astrologer", joins his parents. Masons scatter "the Acacia spray" on the grave of "a melancholy man / Who had ended where his breath began": he died in the place where he was born, a quiet sign of a life that stayed put.
Lines 13 to 16Scattered children
Other children of the family lie "Far from the customary skies", away from the Mall and the grammar school of their Sligo childhood, buried "In London or in Liverpool". The local names make home concrete before the poem leaves it.
Lines 17 to 23The sailor John
The question "where is laid the sailor John?" is asked twice and never answered. He knew many lands and seas, traded where "the Indians trade or Japanese", and "never found his rest ashore", always "Moping for one voyage more".
Lines 24 to 35Alfred comes home
Alfred, "the youngest son", was buried "yesterday". The poet recalls how, after long years as "A nobody in a great throng", he chose at fifty to go home, where "common men" still remembered his childhood and would call him "Mr. Alfred" again.
Lines 36 to 39The sea-bird's cry
At every one of these deaths, women heard "A visionary white sea-bird" lamenting. The last line joins the poet's voice to that old family omen: "with that cry I have raised my cry".

Themes

Family and belonging

The elegy is really for a family. It moves from the founding grandparents, through George and John and the scattered children, to Alfred. What matters most about Alfred's return is that he is known: "common men" carry "His childhood and his family" in memory, and so he is "Mr. Alfred" again.

Home and exile

Some Pollexfens die where they were born, like George, who "ended where his breath began". Others lie in London or Liverpool, or, like John, somewhere unknown at sea. Alfred's homecoming is the poem's quiet happy ending: after being "A nobody in a great throng", he chooses to be somebody in a small place.

Mourning

The poem is plain and unhurried, more a family history than a cry of grief. Only at the end does lament break through, in the "visionary white sea-bird" whose cry is heard at each death-bed. The poet's final line makes the poem itself that cry.

Context

The poem was collected in The Wild Swans at Coole (Cuala Press, 1917); an earlier version was titled simply "In Memory". The Pollexfens were Yeats's mother's family, merchants and shipowners in Sligo town, and William and Elizabeth were his grandparents. Alfred, George and John were his uncles.

Yeats was close to George Pollexfen, with whom he shared an interest in astrology and the occult, and he stayed with him in Sligo as a young man. The poem sets that private family world beside the public elegies in the same book, such as the poem for Robert Gregory.

Form

Thirty-nine short lines of four beats, mostly in rhyming couplets ("death" and "Elizabeth", "away" and "spray"), set as one unbroken block. The steady, ballad-like movement suits a family chronicle, and the repeated question about "the sailor John" breaks the rhythm with real uncertainty.