The Sad Shepherd

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1889from Crossways28 lines

Earlier titled "Miserrimus"

There was a man whom Sorrow named his friendAnd he, of his high comrade Sorrow dreaming,Went walking with slow steps along the gleamingAnd humming sands, where windy surges wend:And he called loudly to the stars to bendFrom their pale thrones and comfort him, but theyAmong themselves laugh on and sing alway:And then the man whom Sorrow named his friendCried out, Dim sea, hear my most piteous story!The sea swept on and cried her old cry still,Rolling along in dreams from hill to hill;He fled the persecution of her gloryAnd, in a far-off, gentle valley stopping,Cried all his story to the dewdrops glistening,But naught they heard, for they are always listening,The dewdrops, for the sound of their own dropping.And then the man whom Sorrow named his friend,Sought once again the shore, and found a shell,And thought, I will my heavy story tellTill my own words, re-echoing, shall sendTheir sadness through a hollow, pearly heart;And my own tale again for me shall sing,And my own whispering words be comforting,And lo! my ancient burden may depart.Then he sang softly nigh the pearly rim;But the sad dweller by the sea-ways loneChanged all he sang to inarticulate moanAmong her wildering whirls, forgetting him.

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

In brief

Summary

A grieving man seeks comfort from stars, sea, dew and shell, and finds none.

A man whose only friend is Sorrow walks the shore looking for someone to hear his story. He calls to the stars, but they go on laughing and singing among themselves. He cries out to the sea, but she rolls on with her own old cry. He tells his story to the dewdrops in a quiet valley, but they are listening only to the sound of their own dropping. At last he finds a shell and hopes it will echo his words back as comfort. Instead it turns his song into an "inarticulate moan" and forgets him. Everything in nature is wrapped up in itself, and his grief stays his own.

Lines to remember

There was a man whom Sorrow named his friend

Changed all he sang to inarticulate moan

Line by line

Lines 1 to 4Sorrow's friend
The opening sounds like a fable: "There was a man whom Sorrow named his friend". Sorrow is a "high comrade", almost a person, and the man walks slowly along "gleaming / And humming sands" beside the sea, lost in thought.
Lines 5 to 8The laughing stars
He calls loudly to the stars to come down from "their pale thrones" and comfort him. They ignore him and "laugh on and sing alway". The line "the man whom Sorrow named his friend" returns, as if his grief were his only name.
Lines 9 to 12The sea's old cry
He turns to the sea: "Dim sea, hear my most piteous story!" But the sea sweeps on crying "her old cry", rolling "in dreams from hill to hill". Overwhelmed by her grandeur, "the persecution of her glory", he flees.
Lines 13 to 16The deaf dewdrops
In a gentle valley he tells his story to the dewdrops, but they hear nothing, "for they are always listening" to "the sound of their own dropping". It is a small, witty image of a world absorbed in itself.
Lines 17 to 24Hope in a shell
Back on the shore he finds a shell and thinks his words, echoed through its "hollow, pearly heart", will sing his own tale back to him as comfort. He hopes "my ancient burden may depart". The repeated "my own" shows how alone he is.
Lines 25 to 28The shell's moan
He sings softly at the shell's "pearly rim", but the shell, "the sad dweller by the sea-ways lone", turns everything to "inarticulate moan" in "her wildering whirls" and forgets him. Even the shell has a sorrow of its own.

Themes

Loneliness

The man speaks to stars, sea, dew and shell, and none of them listens. Each is busy with itself: the stars "laugh on", the sea cries "her old cry", the dewdrops hear only "their own dropping". His grief isolates him, and Sorrow, the one companion he has, only deepens the isolation.

Nature's indifference

Unlike many Romantic poems, this one finds no sympathy in nature. The stars sit on "pale thrones", the sea has its "glory", and the shell changes his song to "inarticulate moan". The natural world is beautiful and full of its own voices, but it will not take on a human sorrow.

Words that fail

The poem answers "The Song of the Happy Shepherd", which trusted that a shell would turn our stories into comfort. Here the man hopes "my own tale again for me shall sing", but his words come back as a moan. Telling his story, again and again, brings no relief.

Context

The poem was first collected in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (London, January 1889) under the title "Miserrimus", Latin for "most wretched". Renamed "The Sad Shepherd", it follows "The Song of the Happy Shepherd" at the start of "Crossways", the section of early lyrics that opens Yeats's collected poems.

The two shepherd poems are a pair. The happy shepherd advises telling your story to a shell, which will echo it back in "melodious guile"; the sad shepherd tries exactly that and is left with a moan. Together they show the young Yeats weighing the comfort of song against the weight of grief.

Form

A single block of 28 lines in five-beat lines, grouped by rhyme into enclosing sets, abba ("friend", "dreaming", "gleaming", "wend"). Many rhymes are double, with a soft falling ending: "story" and "glory", "glistening" and "listening", "stopping" and "dropping". The repeated line "the man whom Sorrow named his friend" marks each new stage of his search.

Titled 'Miserrimus' in 1889.