To a Young Beauty
To a Young Beauty - fact Summary
Included in the Wild Swans
Yeats addresses a young woman praised for her looks, advising caution in choosing companions and urging an allegiance to artistic rather than fashionable society. He contrasts fleeting social pleasure with lasting fellowship among serious writers, acknowledging the burdens beauty imposes yet valuing integrity and discerning company. The speaker positions himself as an artist who prefers intellectual fellowship over flattering crowds, citing canonical figures to mark literary kinship.
Read Complete AnalysesDear fellow-artist, why so free With every sort of company, With every Jack and Jill? Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest Soon topples down the hill. You may, that mirror for a school, Be passionate, not bountiful As common beauties may, Who were not born to keep in trim With old Ezekiel's cherubim But those of Beauvarlet. I know what wages beauty gives, How hard a life her setvant lives, Yet praise the winters gone: There is not a fool can call me friend, And I may dine at journey's end With Landor and with Donne.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.