An Appointment
An Appointment - meaning Summary
Escape from Political Disillusion
Yeats presents a speaker disenchanted with government who seeks release by imitating a free, wayward squirrel. The poem contrasts human restraint and worry with the animal’s spontaneous agility and apparent laughter. The squirrel’s unbidden leaps become a model of vitality unregulated by institutions. The closing line emphasizes that this spirited freedom is not granted or organized by any government, but arises naturally in the creature.
Read Complete AnalysesBeing out of heart with government I took a broken root to fling Where the proud, wayward squirrel went, Taking delight that he could spring; And he, with that low whinnying sound That is like laughter, sprang again And so to the other tree at a bound. Nor the tame will, nor timid brain, Nor heavy knitting of the brow Bred that fierce tooth and cleanly limb And threw him up to laugh on the bough; No govermnent appointed him.
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