A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety
A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety - meaning Summary
Sobriety Praised in Irony
Yeats presents a speaker who insists on remaining a "sober man" while drinking and dancing, treating sobriety as an ideal or jewel maintained through performance. The poem links drunkenness and death—drunkards lie and snore, and beneath each dancer is a dead man—so that continued movement and controlled appearance become ways to resist or mock mortality. It explores the paradox of identity, staged composure, and life’s precariousness.
Read Complete AnalysesCome swish around, my pretty punk, And keep me dancing still That I may stay a sober man Although I drink my fill. Sobriety is a jewel That I do much adore; And therefore keep me dancing Though drunkards lie and snore. O mind your feet, O mind your feet, Keep dancing like a wave, And under every dancer A dead man in his grave. No ups and downs, my pretty, A mermaid, not a punk; A drunkard is a dead man, And all dead men are drunk.
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