The Dolls

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1914from Responsibilities20 lines

A doll in the doll-maker’s houseLooks at the cradle and bawls:“That is an insult to us.”But the oldest of all the dollsWho had seen, being kept for show,Generations of his sort,Out-screams the whole shelf: “AlthoughThere’s not a man can reportEvil of this place,The man and the woman bringHither to our disgrace,A noisy and filthy thing.”Hearing him groan and stretchThe doll-maker’s wife is awareHer husband has heard the wretch,And crouched by the arm of his chair,She murmurs into his ear,Head upon shoulder leant:“My dear, my dear, oh dear,It was an accident.”

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

In brief

Summary

A doll-maker's dolls are outraged when a real baby arrives.

In a doll-maker's house a doll looks at a cradle and bawls that it is "an insult to us". The oldest doll, kept for show through generations, screams louder still: the house has a good name, yet the man and woman have brought into it "A noisy and filthy thing", a real baby. The doll-maker groans and stretches, and his wife, knowing he has heard, crouches by his chair and murmurs into his ear, "My dear, my dear, oh dear, / It was an accident." The fable is comic and a little sad.

Lines to remember

A noisy and filthy thing.

"My dear, my dear, oh dear,

It was an accident."

Line by line

Lines 1 to 3The insult
A doll sees the cradle and "bawls", the word itself babyish. To the dolls, a living child in a house of perfect, made things is "an insult". The joke begins with the dolls behaving like spoilt children themselves.
Lines 4 to 12The oldest doll
The oldest doll, which has watched "Generations of his sort", "Out-screams the whole shelf". He speaks like a respectable elder defending the family name: nobody can report "Evil of this place", yet the couple have brought in "A noisy and filthy thing".
Lines 13 to 20The wife's apology
The doll-maker groans, and his wife realises he has heard "the wretch". Crouched by his chair, head on his shoulder, she whispers, "It was an accident." Her gentle apology is funny and touching, and it seems to accept the dolls' view that the baby needs excusing.

Themes

Art and life

The dolls are perfect, finished and lifeless; the baby is "noisy and filthy" and alive. The poem can be read as a fable about art that prizes polish over life. The dolls speak for a taste that finds real, messy living an "insult".

Comedy and tenderness

The poem is funny: dolls that scream, a respectable old doll on his dignity, a couple apologising to their own creations. Yet the wife's murmur, "My dear, my dear, oh dear", is loving, and the last line leaves a small ache behind the joke.

Context

The poem was collected in Responsibilities (Cuala Press, 1914), where it follows "The Magi". The two poems make a pair: in one, ancient figures long for a new, uncontrollable birth; in the other, lifeless dolls are appalled when a living child arrives.

Form

Twenty short lines of about three beats, rhymed alternately in groups of four ("house" and "us", "bawls" and "dolls"). The quick, jingling lines suit a nursery fable, and the direct speech gives each voice its own tone, from the doll's shriek to the wife's murmur.