That civilisation may not sink,
Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
To a distant post;
Our master Caesar is in the tent
Where the maps are spread,
His eyes fixed upon nothing,
A hand under his head.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.
That the topless towers be burnt
And men recall that face,
Move most gently if move you must
In this lonely place.
She thinks, part woman, three parts a child,
That nobody looks; her feet
Practise a tinker shuffle
Picked up on a street.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.
That girls at puberty may find
The first Adam in their thought,
Shut the door of the Pope's chapel,
Keep those children out.
There on that scaffolding reclines
Michael Angelo.
With no more sound than the mice make
His hand moves to and fro.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.
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Comments
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As I said (below), the girl in verse 2 is Helen of Troy. Yeats is quoting a famous line about her: "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Illium?" It has to be Helen, but why should she need peace and quiet? Caesar might need to concentrate on his campaigns, and Michelangelo on his painting, but the adolescent Helen didn't need to think in order to grow into the most beautiful woman in the world!
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The 'long-legged fly' refrain should go after all three verses, not just the last. Yeats liked refrains and wrote a lot of them.
This isn't my favourite Yeats poem, but it's the first one I ever came across.
The girl in the second verse is Helen of Troy. -
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