Day: July 11, 2015

When days are long like melodies of youth,

  • When soft winds blow and air warms our bare skin.
    When days are long like melodies of youth,
    when light wakes up the soul from out her sin
    Then shall we know when this sweet life is truth?

    When flowers droop and leaves are dried and brown;
    When water’s short and all is arid and forlorn’
    Then do not meet disaster with a frown,
    For out of heartfelt sorrow life is born.

    When winter’s here and all is quiet and still
    And nothing seems to move or grow or speak
    Then we shall learn the limits of our will
    for through the soil the first green shoots will break.

    For seasons change and actors come and go.
    Yet through such changes, life is what we know

The Cold Heaven BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of that and this
Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?
See below for some analysis and biography.
http://nimbustype40.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/a-chilly-paradise-an-analysis-of-the-cold-heaven-by-w-b-yeats/

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/willia

A Chilly Paradise (An analysis of ‘The Cold Heaven’ by W.B. Yeats)

Read the poem too

Jack's avatarNimbus Type40

The whole of ‘The Cold Heaven’ is a dramatic metaphor for Yeats’ emotion, having realised that Maud Gonne (the love of his life) will probably never accept him. The poem is a 1st person narrative, with one stanza of free verse. Enjambment makes the poem sound like a rush of thoughts, as does the irregularity of the line lengths, yet this also gives Yeats space to explain his emotions. The fact that the poem itself is short reflects the fact that Yeats now believes life is short, his life has ended now that Gonne has gone. It is made up of one sentence of Yeats looking up at the sky and pondering about unrequited love and then another reflecting on the idea of the afterlife. The poem is in a Romantic style, heavily influenced and inspired by the works of other poets, such as William Blake.

The title itself is…

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