Yeats: Final Version

William Butler Yeats wrote the poem After Long Silence between 1929 and 1933.

         The poem only has a paragraph of eight verses and its rhythm is A- B- B- A- C- D- D- C. In my opinion the title refers to what happened after the silence, I mean, when we read the text we realise that it talks about a couple of lovers, and I think that when two persons are in love, sometimes they do not know what to say, they only want to enjoy their love, and they spend some time in silence, the title refers to what happens after this silence, probably when you realise that the real world is not the other person. I think that the poet is telling us how his first love was, what he felt when they spent their first night together, what happened when the night finished and what he felt after the silence of the night. He felt to be the only lover in the world, but when this time ends he realises that it is a stupid feeling of a young lover.

         In the first line the author tells us that the first speech after the silence is good, and in the second line he shows a feeling, he says that this speech is good because all other lovers are separated. I think that the author tries to show his feeling of love, he feels they are the only lovers in the world, and their speech is good because the words make this feeling real.

         In verses three and four the author talks about darkness. I think that the poet and his lover spend a night together, and all is magic until they talk again. After the silence he realises about reality and he sees the shadows and he thinks that the night is ugly. The image of the curtains drawing shadows with the light of a lamplight refers to a night when you are alone and you cannot sleep, I think it is a feeling of loneliness.

         In verses five and six the author compares their love with Art and Song. I think that it refers to the topic that when you are in love you see happiness and you can hear music, only because you are happy because you love another person and he/ she loves you.

            In the last two verses he says that when they were young they were ignorant, and the decrepitude of the body means to reach the intelligence.

            I have looked for information about the author in http://www.online-literature.com/yeats and I have found that the author was fascinated with supernatural science, and he liked the idea of communication with death people and mysticism. I have read the author was married with Maud Gonne, but she left him. Knowing something about the life of the author and taking a second read of the poem, I think the author refers to death when he talks about “ a long silence”. I mean, I have had a second impression when I have corrected my work. I think that the author talks about when his wife left him. He thinks that his wife left him because their were young and they did not know about love, because that he says the two last verses, they were ignorant because they were young, and now, when their bodies have aged, they know, they are intelligent.

         I think that the author refers to “ a long silence” as he would be talking about death, because he felt ill when his wife left him, I mean, the author wants to tell us that his wife was death, and the time she was with the other man appears as a death, as a “ long silence”. And he spends that after this long silence they, he and his wife, will return to be together, and as they will be older than before the separation, they will be more intelligent and they will talk another time and they will realise about their problems and they will solve the situation.

         The definition that the author gives us in verses 3, 4 and 5 is how he felt during the period he and his wife were separated, it is like a night where only a lamplight gives light and it makes shadows of the past, a dark past, and the curtains of a room grief, it makes reference to the grief of sadness.

         In conclusion, the first part of my analysis is what I did in my first version, because I want to show what I felt the first time I read the poem, I thought it talked about the feelings of a man, after spending a night with his love, but when I read it the second time ( and this is what I show in the second part of my analysis) I thought that the author referred to the moment he was left by his wife. I think that Yeats was confused because his wife left him, and he wanted to think that a long silence, ( a death) but I think it is better to say a divorce, separated them for a period of time in which he and his wife matured, and then they took up their relation again, and they solved their differences.