At Galway Races
At Galway Races - meaning Summary
Communal Vitality and Memory
The poem recalls the communal energy of the Galway races, where riders, crowds and shared delight create a lively solidarity. The speaker contrasts that past companionship with a later, more timid commercial world dominated by merchants and clerks. Yet the tone remains hopeful: sleep isn’t final and the earth’s wild, cyclical renewal can restore that communal spirit, bringing back "hearteners" who ride together once more.
Read Complete AnalysesThere where the course is, Delight makes all of the one mind, The riders upon the galloping horses, The crowd that closes in behind: We, too, had good attendance once, Hearers and hearteners of the work; Aye, horsemen for companions, Before the merchant and the clerk Breathed on the world with timid breath. Sing on: somewhere at some new moon, We'll learn that sleeping is not death, Hearing the whole earth change its tune, Its flesh being wild, and it again Crying aloud as the racecourse is, And we find hearteners among men That ride upon horses.
unparallel.