At the Abbey Theatre
Imitated from Ronsard
At the Abbey Theatre - meaning Summary
Artists and Public Reaction
The speaker addresses a theatrical figure, pleading for guidance in dealing with a fickle audience. He describes how crowds alternately praise the company’s lofty flights and deride their attention to ordinary things. The poem asks whether there is a way to control public taste or a trick to satisfy shifting expectations, or whether the only response to mockery is reciprocal mockery. It frames the artist’s struggle between sincerity and popular approval.
Read Complete AnalysesDear Craoibhin Aoibhin, look into our case. When we are high and airy hundreds say That if we hold that flight they'll leave the place, While those same hundreds mock another day Because we have made our art of common things, So bitterly, you'd dream they longed to look All their lives through into some drift of wings. You've dandled them and fed them from the book And know them to the bone; impart to us - We'll keep the secret - a new trick to please. Is there a bridle for this Proteus That turns and changes like his draughty seas? Or is there none, most popular of men, But when they mock us, that we mock again?
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