The Choice
The Choice - meaning Summary
Art Versus Life
Yeats presents a stark dilemma between living a fulfilled, moral life and dedicating oneself to artistic perfection. The speaker argues that choosing the work means sacrificing a "heavenly mansion" or spiritual fulfillment; in the end the labor leaves tangible consequences—poverty, vanity, or remorse—rather than transcendence. The poem frames creativity as a costly, irrevocable choice with moral and practical trade-offs.
Read Complete AnalysesThe intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work, And if it take the second must refuse A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark. When all that story's finished, what's the news? In luck or out the toil has left its mark: That old perplexity an empty purse, Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse.
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