Quatrains and Aphorisms

W. B. Yeatsfrom Early and uncollected poems28 lines

I

The child who chases lizards in the grass,The sage who deep in central nature delves,The preacher watching for the ill hour to pass⁠—All these are souls who fly from their dread selves.

II

Two spirit-things a man hath for his friends⁠—Sorrow, that gives for guerdon liberty,And joy, the touching of whose finger lendsTo lightest of all light things sanctity.

III

Long thou for nothing, neither sad nor gay;Long thou for nothing, neither night nor day;Not even “I long to see thy longing over,”To the ever-longing and mournful spirit say.

IV

The ghosts went by me with their lips apartFrom death’s late languor as these lines I readOn Brahma’s gateway, “They within have fedThe soul upon the ashes of the heart.”

V

This heard I where, amid the apple trees,Wild indolence and music have no date,“I laughed upon the lips of Sophocles,I go as soft as folly; I am Fate.”

VI

“Around, the twitter of the lips of dustA tossing laugh between their red abides;With patient beauty yonder Attic bustIn the deep alcove’s dimness smiles and hides.”

VII

The heart of noon folds silence and folds sleep,For noon and midnight from each other borrow,And Joy, in growing deeper and more deep,Walks in the vesture of her sister Sorrow.

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

In brief

Summary

Seven short verse sayings on sorrow, joy, longing and fate.

Seven separate quatrains, each a small saying in verse. The first claims that a child chasing lizards, a thinker probing nature and an anxious preacher are all running from themselves. The second names sorrow and joy as a man's two spirit-friends. The third advises longing for nothing at all. The fourth recalls a vision of ghosts at the gateway of Brahma, the fifth a voice among apple trees that calls itself Fate, and the sixth a Greek statue smiling in the dark. The last brings sorrow and joy together again: the deepest joy walks dressed in the clothes of her sister, Sorrow.

Lines to remember

All these are souls who fly from their dread selves.

I go as soft as folly; I am Fate.

Walks in the vesture of her sister Sorrow.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 4Flight from the self
Three very different people, a child hunting lizards, a "sage" probing "central nature" and a preacher waiting for a bad hour to pass, are all "souls who fly from their dread selves". Every busy pursuit, the quatrain suggests, is a way of not facing oneself.
Lines 5 to 8Two friends
A man has two "spirit-things" for friends. Sorrow repays him with "liberty"; joy has a touch that lends "sanctity", holiness, to the "lightest of all light things". The balanced pairing of the two looks ahead to the last quatrain.
Lines 9 to 12Long for nothing
The third quatrain gives advice to "the ever-longing and mournful spirit": long for nothing, sad or glad, by night or day. Not even the wish to be free of longing is allowed. The repeated word "long" winds round itself like the craving it warns against.
Lines 13 to 16Brahma's gateway
Ghosts drift past the speaker, still languid from death, while he reads an inscription on "Brahma's gateway": those within have fed "The soul upon the ashes of the heart". Entry to the god's house seems to come only after passion has burnt out.
Lines 17 to 20The voice of Fate
Among apple trees, where "Wild indolence and music have no date", a voice speaks. It once laughed "upon the lips of Sophocles", the Greek tragic poet, and now goes "as soft as folly". Then it names itself: "I am Fate." Fate arrives lightly, even playfully.
Lines 21 to 24The smiling bust
This quatrain is set in quotation marks, as if the voice goes on speaking. All around is the chatter of mortal mouths, "the lips of dust"; beyond, an "Attic bust", an old Greek statue, smiles and hides in a dim alcove. Its patient beauty outlasts the laughter of the living.
Lines 25 to 28Joy and Sorrow
Noon holds silence and sleep, because noon and midnight "from each other borrow". In the same way Joy, "in growing deeper and more deep", comes to wear the clothes of "her sister Sorrow". The sequence ends by joining its two great opposites.

Themes

Sorrow and joy

The sequence keeps returning to these two. In the second quatrain they are a man's two "spirit-things", sorrow giving "liberty" and joy giving "sanctity". In the last they are sisters, and deep joy "Walks in the vesture of her sister Sorrow". The strongest feelings, the poem suggests, meet at their extremes, as noon and midnight do.

Desire and peace

Several quatrains distrust longing. The third says "Long thou for nothing", not even for an end to longing, and the fourth admits to Brahma's house only those who have fed the soul "upon the ashes of the heart". These ideas echo the Indian thought that fascinated the young Yeats, in which peace comes from letting desire go.

Context

This is one of the early poems Yeats later dropped from his collections. The references to Brahma and the teaching against desire reflect his youthful interest in Indian thought, which also shaped "The Indian upon God", "Anashuya and Vijaya" and, much later, "Mohini Chatterjee", named after the Bengali teacher he met in Dublin in the 1880s. The fifth and sixth quatrains turn instead to ancient Greece, with Sophocles and an "Attic bust".

Form

Seven numbered quatrains in five-beat lines, each complete in itself like an epigram. Most rhyme abab, but the third uses the Persian quatrain pattern aaba ("gay", "day", "over", "say"), and the fourth folds inward, abba ("apart", "read", "fed", "heart"). The compact shape suits sayings meant to be remembered.