Owen Aherne and his Dancers

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1928from The Tower24 lines

Earlier titled "Owen Ahern and his Dancers"

I

A strange thing surely that my heart when love had come unsoughtUpon the Norman upland or in that poplar shade,Should find no burden but itself and yet should be worn out.It could not bear that burden and therefore it went mad.

The south wind brought it longing, and the east wind despair,The west wind made it pitiful, and the north wind afraid.It feared to give its love a hurt with all the tempest there;It feared the hurt that she could give and therefore it went mad.

I can exchange opinion with any neighbouring mind,I have as healthy flesh and blood as any rhymer’s had,But oh my Heart could bear no more when the upland caught the wind;I ran, I ran, from my love’s side because my Heart went mad.

II

The Heart behind its rib laughed out, “You have called me mad,” it said.“Because I made you turn away and run from that young child;How could she mate with fifty years that was so wildly bred?Let the cage bird and the cage bird mate and the wild bird mate in the wild.”

“You but imagine lies all day, O murderer,” I replied.“And all those lies have but one end poor wretches to betray;I did not find in any cage the woman at my side.O but her heart would break to learn my thoughts are far away.”

“Speak all your mind,” my Heart sang out, “speak all your mind; who cares,Now that your tongue cannot persuade the child till she mistakeHer childish gratitude for love and match your fifty years.O let her choose a young man now and all for his wild sake.”

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

In brief

Summary

A middle-aged man argues with his own heart over a lost young love.

A man tells how love came to him unsought, "Upon the Norman upland", and how his heart could not bear it and "went mad". Blown about by every wind of feeling, he ran from his love's side. In the second part the Heart itself laughs back at him: it made him run because a girl so "wildly bred" could never mate with "fifty years". He calls the Heart a liar and a murderer, and says he has found no cage in the woman now at his side. The Heart answers with cruel freedom: speak your mind, since you can no longer persuade the child, and let her choose a young man.

Lines to remember

I ran, I ran, from my love's side because my Heart went mad.

How could she mate with fifty years that was so wildly bred?

Let the cage bird and the cage bird mate and the wild bird mate in the wild.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 4Love unsought
It is "A strange thing surely": love came "unsought" in Normandy, among the uplands and the poplar shade, and his heart found "no burden but itself" yet was worn out. The stanza ends on the refrain that closes each stanza of Part I: "therefore it went mad".
Lines 5 to 8Four winds
Each wind brings a different mood: longing from the south, despair from the east, pity from the west, fear from the north. The heart is afraid both of hurting her with "all the tempest there" and of the hurt she could give, and so again "it went mad".
Lines 9 to 12He ran
He insists he is sane enough: he can talk with any neighbour and is as healthy as "any rhymer". But when "the upland caught the wind" his Heart could bear no more. The doubled "I ran, I ran" gives the panic of his flight from "my love's side".
Lines 13 to 16The Heart laughs
Part II lets the Heart speak. It laughs "behind its rib" at being called mad: it made him run because "that young child" could never "mate with fifty years". Its rule is blunt and memorable: the cage bird should mate with the cage bird, and "the wild bird mate in the wild".
Lines 17 to 20O murderer
He turns on the Heart: "You but imagine lies all day, O murderer", lies that only betray "poor wretches". The woman now "at my side" was not found in any cage. His last line shows his guilt: her heart would break to know his thoughts "are far away".
Lines 21 to 24Let her choose
The Heart "sang out" its reply: speak your mind, who cares, now that you cannot persuade the girl to mistake "childish gratitude for love". The Heart ends on release, not triumph: let her "choose a young man now and all for his wild sake".

Themes

Age and youth

The poem turns on a gap in years. The man is "fifty years"; the girl is "that young child", "so wildly bred". The Heart's image of the cage bird and the wild bird makes the point: youth belongs with youth. What the man felt as love, the Heart sees as a danger that she might "mistake / Her childish gratitude for love".

Divided self

The man and his Heart are two voices at war. He calls the Heart "mad" and "murderer"; the Heart laughs at him and claims it saved him. Part I tells the story from the man's side, Part II from the Heart's, and neither is simply right. The argument itself shows a mind torn between desire, guilt and good sense.

Guilt and loyalty

Between the two loves stands "the woman at my side". The man defends her, insisting she was never a caged thing, and dreads that "her heart would break to learn my thoughts are far away". The poem is frank about divided feeling and does not resolve it; the Heart's last word simply lets the young girl go.

Context

The poem was collected in The Tower (1928); an earlier printing spelt the name "Owen Ahern". Owen Aherne is a character from Yeats's stories of the 1890s, who returns in later poems and in A Vision, so the title puts a mask between the poet and his confession.

The poem is usually read as coming from the autumn of 1917. That summer, in Normandy, Yeats proposed to Iseult Gonne, Maud Gonne's daughter, then in her early twenties, and was refused. That October he married George Hyde-Lees. The "young child" is usually taken as Iseult, and "the woman at my side" as his new wife. Yeats was then in his early fifties, close to the poem's "fifty years".

Form

Two parts of three quatrains each, in very long lines of about seven beats, rhymed abab with some slant rhymes ("shade" and "mad"). In Part I every stanza ends with "went mad", a refrain that drives the story. Part II becomes a quarrel in quoted speech, the long lines giving each voice room to argue.