The Spur
The Spur - meaning Summary
Desire Prods the Aging Poet
Yeats addresses criticisms of late-life passion, arguing that lust and rage remain legitimate motives for poetic creation. He acknowledges others find such energies "horrible" in old age, but reminds readers these drives were once ordinary and now serve as crucial incentives. The short poem frames desire and anger not as moral failures but as artistic fuels, posing creativity as a response to dwindling alternatives in later life.
Read Complete AnalysesYou think it horrible that lust and rage Should dance attention upon my old age; They were not such a plague when I was young; What else have I to spur me into song?
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