Another Song of a Fool
Another Song of a Fool - meaning Summary
Constrained Learning and Beauty
Yeats presents a speaker who holds a beautiful butterfly that once was a stern schoolmaster. The poem links disciplined learning and harsh authority to a restrained, almost trapped beauty. The speaker recognizes knowledge and severity in the insect's gaze that he cannot fully grasp. The final image suggests that strict instruction turned sweetness into a means of survival rather than joy, transforming roses into mere sustenance.
Read Complete AnalysesThis great purple butterfly, In the prison of my hands, Has a learning in his eye Not a poor fool understands. Once he lived a schoolmaster With a stark, denying look; A string of scholars went in fear Of his great birch and his great book. Like the clangour of a bell, Sweet and harsh, harsh and sweet. That is how he learnt so well To take the roses for his meat.
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