On a Picture of a Black Centaur
By Edmund Dulac
On a Picture of a Black Centaur - context Summary
Published in the Tower
Published in Yeats’ollection The Tower (1924), this short lyric addresses a painted black centaur and uses classical and occult allusion to register the poet’acing artistic exhaustion and longing. Mythic references (Saturn, Ephesus, Alexander) and striking images (green parrots, mummy wheat) link personal creative failure to larger cycles of time and sleep. The speaker alternates blame and affection, entrusting the centaur with vigilant rest while confessing his own compulsion and fatigue.
Read Complete AnalysesYour hooves have stamped at the black margin of the wood, Even where horrible green parrots call and swing. My works are all stamped down into the sultry mud. I knew that horse-play, knew it for a murderous thing. What wholesome sun has ripened is wholesome food to eat, And that alone; yet I, being driven half insane Because of some green wing, gathered old mummy wheat In the mad abstract dark and ground it grain by grain And after baked it slowly in an oven; but now I bring full-flavoured wine out of a barrel found Where seven Ephesian topers slept and never knew When Alexander's empire passed, they slept so sound. Stretch out your limbs and sleep a long Saturnian sleep; I have loved you better than my soul for all my words, And there is none so fit to keep a watch and keep Unwearied eyes upon those horrible green birds.
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