Song for the Severed Head
In `The King Of The Great Clock Tower'
Song for the Severed Head - meaning Summary
Mythic Riders, Time's Question
Yeats imagines a ghostly procession of Irish mythic and local figures riding from Ben Bulben and Knocknarea toward a Great Clock Tower. The repeated question about what the clock says, answered by the refrain of a "slow low note and an iron bell," links time, ritual and mortality. The poem contrasts heroic legend and absurdity, suggesting fate or ceremonial mourning as these storied characters converge at a symbolic, timekeeping center.
Read Complete AnalysesSaddle and ride, I heard a man say, Out of Ben Bulben and Knocknarea, What says the Clock in the Great Clock Tower? All those tragic characters ride But turn from Rosses' crawling tide, The meet's upon the mountain-side. A slow low note and an iron bell. What brought them there so far from their home. Cuchulain that fought night long with the foam, What says the Clock in the Great Clock Tower? Niamh that rode on it; lad and lass That sat so still and played at the chess? What but heroic wantonness? A slow low note and an iron bell. Aleel, his Countess; Hanrahan That seemed but a wild wenching man; What says the Clock in the Great Clock Tower? And all alone comes riding there The King that could make his people stare, Because he had feathers instead of hair. A slow low note and an iron bell. Tune by Arthur Duff
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