Model for the Laureate
Model for the Laureate - meaning Summary
Power Delays Private Devotion
Yeats criticizes public leaders whose authority and spectacle excuse neglect of personal duties. Across satirical examples—hereditary monarchs, violent rulers, and corrupt officeholders—the poem repeats the image of keeping a lover waiting to show how political power permits moral failure. The Muse is silenced by applause for tainted thrones, suggesting artistic and ethical complicity when society honors hollow or bought authority.
Read Complete AnalysesOn thrones from China to Peru All sorts of kings have sat That men and women of all sorts proclaimed both good and great; And what's the odds if such as these For reason of the State Should keep their lovers waiting, Keep their lovers waiting? Some boast of beggar-kings and kings Of rascals black and white That rule because a strong right arm Puts all men in a fright, And drunk or sober live at ease Where none gainsay their right, And keep their lovers waiting, Keep their lovers waiting. The Muse is mute when public men Applaud a modern throne: Those cheers that can be bought or sold, That office fools have run, That waxen seal, that signature. For things like these what decent man Would keep his lover waiting, Keep his lover waiting?
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