To Ireland in the Coming Times

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1892from The Rose48 lines

Earlier titled "Apologia addressed to Ireland in the coming days"

Know, that I would accounted beTrue brother of that company,That sang to sweeten Ireland’s wrong,Ballad and story, rann and song;Nor be I any less of them,Because the red-rose-bordered hemOf her, whose history beganBefore God made the angelic clan,Trails all about the written page.When Time began to rant and rageThe measure of her flying feetMade Ireland’s heart begin to beat;And Time bade all his candles flareTo light a measure here and there;And may the thoughts of Ireland broodUpon a measured quietude.

Nor may I less be counted oneWith Davis, Mangan, Ferguson,Because to him, who ponders well,My rhymes more than their rhyming tellOf things discovered in the deep,Where only body’s laid asleep.For the elemental creatures goAbout my table to and fro,That hurry from unmeasured mindTo rant and rage in flood and wind;Yet he who treads in measured waysMay surely barter gaze for gaze.Man ever journeys on with themAfter the red-rose-bordered hem.Ah, faeries, dancing under the moon,A Druid land, a Druid tune!

While still I may, I write for youThe love I lived, the dream I knew.From our birthday, until we die,Is but the winking of an eye;And we, our singing and our love,What measurer Time has lit above,And all benighted things that goAbout my table to and fro,Are passing on to where may be,In truth’s consuming ecstasyNo place for love and dream at all;For God goes by with white foot-fall.I cast my heart into my rhymes,That you, in the dim coming times,May know how my heart went with themAfter the red-rose-bordered hem.

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

In brief

Summary

Yeats claims his mystical poems serve Ireland as truly as patriotic ballads.

The poet addresses future Irish readers and asks to be counted a "True brother" of the poets who sang "to sweeten Ireland's wrong". His poems may seem different, trailing the "red-rose-bordered hem" of a mysterious figure rather than telling plain patriotic stories, but that figure is older than the angels, and her dancing feet first set Ireland's heart beating. In the second stanza he names Davis, Mangan and Ferguson and claims his verse tells even more than theirs, because it speaks of "things discovered in the deep" and of the spirits that crowd about his table. The third stanza turns to mortality: life is "but the winking of an eye", and everything is passing towards a place where love and dream may have no room. So he writes now, casting his heart into his rhymes, so that readers in "the dim coming times" will know he too followed the rose.

Lines to remember

I cast my heart into my rhymes,

Is but the winking of an eye;

After the red-rose-bordered hem.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 9True brother
He asks to be "accounted" a "True brother" of the poets who made "Ballad and story, rann and song" for Ireland. Nor, he insists, should he count for less because his pages trail with the "red-rose-bordered hem" of a figure whose history began "Before God made the angelic clan".
Lines 10 to 16The dance of Ireland
When Time began, "The measure of her flying feet" made "Ireland's heart begin to beat", and Time lit candles "To light a measure here and there". A measure is both a dance and a unit of verse, and he prays that Ireland may brood "Upon a measured quietude".
Lines 17 to 22Davis, Mangan, Ferguson
He names three Irish poets of the generation before him and asks to be counted among them. His rhymes, he claims, tell more than theirs to anyone "who ponders well", because they speak "Of things discovered in the deep", where only the body sleeps.
Lines 23 to 28Elemental creatures
"The elemental creatures" move "About my table to and fro", spirits that hurry "from unmeasured mind" to rage in flood and wind. Yet the poet who "treads in measured ways", disciplined in his craft, can face them and "barter gaze for gaze".
Lines 29 to 32Following the rose
All humanity "ever journeys on" with these spirits, following the "red-rose-bordered hem". The stanza ends in a cry of enchantment at faeries "dancing under the moon" and "A Druid land, a Druid tune!"
Lines 33 to 38The winking of an eye
Now he writes straight to the future: "While still I may, I write for you". A human life, from birthday to death, "Is but the winking of an eye". We ourselves, with "our singing and our love", are lit for a moment by "measurer Time" and must pass.
Lines 39 to 44No place for love
Everything, even the spirits about his table, is "passing on" towards a state where, in "truth's consuming ecstasy", there may be "No place for love and dream at all". The stanza's centre is solemn and quiet: "For God goes by with white foot-fall."
Lines 45 to 48His heart in his rhymes
The poem closes with a gift: "I cast my heart into my rhymes", so that Ireland "in the dim coming times" will know he too followed the rose. The "red-rose-bordered hem" returns for the third time, now as his signature.

Themes

Poet and nation

The poem is an argument about what counts as Irish poetry. Davis, Mangan and Ferguson wrote "to sweeten Ireland's wrong", often about history and politics. Yeats claims that his mystical, faery-haunted verse serves the same cause at a deeper level, telling "Of things discovered in the deep". He wants to be judged a patriot on his own terms.

The rose

The "red-rose-bordered hem" appears three times, in lines 6, 30 and 48. It belongs to a figure who is at once Ireland, eternal beauty and the object of the spiritual quest, older than the angels. By following that hem the poet joins a journey that "Man ever journeys on", and binds his private symbol to the nation.

Measure

Words about measure run all through the poem: "measure", "measured quietude", "unmeasured mind", "measured ways", "measurer Time". Measure means dance, poetic metre and self-control. The spirits come from "unmeasured mind", but the poet masters them through form, and that craft is how his wild vision becomes a gift to Ireland.

Context

The poem first appeared in book form in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892), under the title "Apologia addressed to Ireland in the coming days", and it closes the group of lyrics Yeats later called "The Rose". An apologia is a defence, and the poem is Yeats defending his kind of poetry to readers who wanted plain patriotic verse. He revised its wording after 1895.

Thomas Davis, James Clarence Mangan and Samuel Ferguson were leading Irish poets of the generation before Yeats: Davis the voice of the Young Ireland movement, Mangan the author of "Dark Rosaleen", Ferguson a reteller of Irish legend. Here Yeats asks to be placed in their line.

Form

Three sixteen-line stanzas of rhyming couplets in iambic tetrameter ("be", "company"; "wrong", "song"). The short, even lines give it the feel of a spoken pledge. The phrase "After the red-rose-bordered hem" closes both the second and the third stanzas, echoing line 6, so the rose's hem works as a refrain binding the argument together.

Revised after 1895 (minor-to-moderate verbal changes, about 80 per cent word overlap). 1892 title 'Apologia addressed to Ireland in the coming days'.