To a Friend whose Work has come to Nothing

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1914from Responsibilities16 lines

Now all the truth is out,Be secret and take defeatFrom any brazen throat,For how can you compete,Being honour bred, with oneWho, were it proved he lies,Were neither shamed in his ownNor in his neighbours’ eyes?Bred to a harder thingThan Triumph, turn awayAnd like a laughing stringWhereon mad fingers playAmid a place of stone,Be secret and exult,Because of all things knownThat is most difficult.

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

In brief

Summary

Yeats counsels a defeated friend to accept loss with secret pride.

The friend's work has failed, and "all the truth is out". Yeats advises silence: "Be secret and take defeat" from any loud, shameless opponent, since someone "honour bred" cannot compete with a man who would feel no shame even if proved a liar. The second half goes further. Bred to something harder than triumph, the friend should turn away, like a string played by "mad fingers" in a place of stone, and "Be secret and exult". To rejoice in defeat, without showing it, is the hardest thing of all.

Lines to remember

Be secret and take defeat

Be secret and exult,

That is most difficult.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 8Take defeat
The poem opens after the worst has happened. "Be secret and take defeat": do not answer the "brazen throat". The friend is "honour bred" and cannot compete with an opponent who, even if "proved he lies", would feel no shame before himself or his neighbours.
Lines 9 to 16Exult in secret
The friend was bred "to a harder thing" than triumph, and must "turn away". The simile of "a laughing string" plucked by "mad fingers" amid "a place of stone" pictures joy in a hostile place. The last command, "Be secret and exult", is the "most difficult" of all.

Themes

Honour

The poem sets the friend's honour against the opponent's shamelessness. The enemy has a "brazen throat" and would not blush even if caught lying. An honourable person cannot win that kind of contest, and should not try. Refusing to fight becomes a form of dignity.

Defeat and joy

The poem asks for more than patient acceptance. "Take defeat" becomes "exult": the friend should rejoice, secretly, like "a laughing string" played in a stony place. Yeats admits this is "most difficult", and the word "secret", used twice, makes the triumph inward and owed to no one.

Context

The poem was published in Responsibilities (Cuala Press, 1914). It is addressed to Lady Gregory, whose nephew Hugh Lane's plan for a Dublin gallery of modern pictures failed amid bitter public attacks in 1913. Yeats wrote several poems about the gallery controversy, including "September 1913" and "To a Shade"; this is the most private of them, a word of comfort to a friend.

Form

Sixteen short lines of three beats, rhymed ABAB throughout, some only half rhyming ("out" and "throat"). The poem is two long sentences, one for each half, each driving across the short lines to a firm close. The repeated command "Be secret" ties the halves together.