He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace
He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace - meaning Summary
Calm Against Looming Disaster
Yeats presents escalating, vivid images of approaching catastrophe—shadowy horses, elemental directions, and a sense of tumult—but shifts to a private, calming plea. The speaker asks his beloved to close her eyes, let her heart rest on his, and drown public anxieties in intimate sleep. The poem contrasts impending external violence with small domestic consolation, suggesting human closeness as a temporary refuge from inevitable disorder.
Read Complete AnalysesI hear the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake, Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white; The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night, The East her hidden joy before the morning break, The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away, The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire: O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire, The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay: Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast, Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest, And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.
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