The Leaders of the Crowd
The Leaders of the Crowd - context Summary
In the Tower Collection
Placed in Yeats's collection The Tower, the poem contrasts the noisy, conforming crowd with the solitary seeker of truth. It portrays public opinion as gossip and spectacle that suppresses difference, while asserting that genuine knowledge grows in solitude and study. The poem reflects Yeats's recurring concern with cultural decline and the moral cost of popularity, arguing that depth and integrity are fostered away from mass approval.
Read Complete AnalysesThey must to keep their certainty accuse All that are different of a base intent; Pull down established honour; hawk for news Whatever their loose fantasy invent And murmur it with bated breath, as though The abounding gutter had been Helicon Or calumny a song. How can they know Truth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone, And there alone, that have no Solitude? So the crowd come they care not what may come. They have loud music, hope every day renewed And heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb.
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