Kanva on Himself

W. B. Yeatsfrom Early and uncollected poems20 lines

Now wherefore hast thou tears innumerous?Hast thou not known all sorrow and delightWandering of yore in forests rumorous,Beneath the flaming eyeballs of the night,

And as a slave been wakeful in the hallsOf Rajas and Mahrajas beyond number?Hast thou not ruled among the gilded walls?Hast thou not known a Raja’s dreamless slumber?

Hast thou not sat of yore upon the kneesOf myriads of beloveds, and on thineHave not a myriad swayed below strange treesIn other lives? Hast thou not quaffed old wine

By tables that were fallen into dustEre yonder palm commenced his thousand years?Is not thy body but the garnered rustOf ancient passions and of ancient fears?

Then wherefore fear the usury of Time,Or Death that cometh with the next life-key?Nay, rise and flatter her with golden rhyme,For as things were so shall things ever be.

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

In brief

Summary

An Indian sage tells himself not to fear death, having lived many lives.

Kanva is speaking to himself. He asks why he should weep when he has already known every sorrow and delight across countless past lives. He has wandered in forests, served as a slave in the halls of kings, ruled among "gilded walls", loved and been loved "a myriad" times, and drunk wine at tables long since turned to dust. His body is only "the garnered rust / Of ancient passions and of ancient fears". There is no reason to fear time or death. He should rise and write golden rhyme, because "as things were so shall things ever be".

Lines to remember

Is not thy body but the garnered rust

For as things were so shall things ever be.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 4The question
The poem opens with a question to himself: "wherefore hast thou tears innumerous?" He reminds himself that he has wandered "of yore" in forests "rumorous" with sound, under "the flaming eyeballs of the night", a startling image of the stars.
Lines 5 to 8Slave and king
In past lives he has been both a sleepless slave in the halls of "Rajas and Mahrajas beyond number" and a ruler himself, knowing "a Raja's dreamless slumber". The run of questions beginning "Hast thou not" builds a sense of vast experience.
Lines 9 to 12Many loves
He has sat on the knees of "myriads of beloveds" and held a myriad on his own "below strange trees / In other lives". The phrase "In other lives" makes the idea of rebirth explicit.
Lines 13 to 16Ancient dust
He has drunk old wine at tables now "fallen into dust", before the palm outside began its "thousand years". His very body is "the garnered rust" of old passions and fears, gathered in from all those lives.
Lines 17 to 20Rise and sing
The conclusion follows: there is no need to fear "the usury of Time", or Death, which only opens the next life like a key. Instead he should "rise and flatter her with golden rhyme", for nothing truly changes.

Themes

Rebirth

The whole argument rests on reincarnation. Kanva has lived "In other lives" as slave, king and lover, and Death is only "the next life-key". Seen this way, no single life's sorrow is worth tears, since every sorrow and delight has already been known and will come again.

Consolation

The poem is a man talking himself out of grief. The long chain of questions ("Hast thou not...?") works like a steady hand on the shoulder. Its answer is calm, even detached: "as things were so shall things ever be". The fit response to time is to make "golden rhyme".

Context

This is one of Yeats's early poems that he did not keep in his collected work. It belongs with his early Indian poems, such as "The Indian upon God", written after he met the Bengali teacher Mohini Chatterjee in Dublin in the mid-1880s, whose talk of rebirth impressed him deeply. Kanva is the name of a sage in Indian tradition. The poem was printed in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889), his first book of lyrics.

Form

Five quatrains of iambic pentameter rhymed ABAB, some with rich, heavy rhymes ("innumerous", "rumorous"; "number", "slumber"). Almost every sentence is a question until the last stanza, where the rhetoric turns to command ("Nay, rise") and a final plain statement.