Yeats and Plato's Ghost
Pedro Rocha de Oliveira
B.: The Poems. Edited by Daniel Albright. London: Everyman, 1996; p. 783).
I find his notes ellucidative sometimes, though I haven't compared his
interpretation of Yeats' poems with anybody's. Most of the time, Albright
gives us connections between Yeats' literary productions and events in his
life, and mostly, when trying to interpretate, he delivers us
self-reflecting words from the poet's very pen, hardly ever assuming, say,
a philosophical standpoint, or giving himself much imaginative or deductive
freedom.
----
This 'melancholy biographical poem' (_The Letters of W. B. Yeats_, ed.
Allan Wade. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954; p. 895) was a contribution to
Yeats's high school magazine. Yeats's desire to make a swift lyric summary
of his career culminated in 'The Circus Animals' Desertion'.
Line 5: "What then", sang Plato's ghost: 'all my life weighed in the scales
of my own life seems to me a preparation for something that never happens'
(_The Autobiography_, Reveries of Childhood and Youth; p. 33) (...).
Plato's philosphy (see 'The Tower' line 12) gave prestige to ideal forms,
and Plato's ghost represents a further abstraction from common life. This
refrain, then, presents an inner voice mocking the vanity of earthly
endeavours.
Line 19: Something to perfection brought: compare 'The Choice', line 2:
'Perfection of the life, or of the work.' Here the poet has made the second
of these choices, and his soul's salvation is in doubt.
----
What Then?
HIS chosen comrades thought at school
He must grow a famous man;
He thought the same and lived by rule,
All his twenties crammed with toil;
"What then?' sang Plato's ghost. "What then?"
Everything he wrote was read,
After certain years he won
Sufficient money for his need,
Friends that have been friends indeed;
"What then?' sang Plato's ghost. "What then?'
All his happier dreams came true -
A small old house, wife, daughter, son,
Grounds where plum and cabbage grew,
poets and Wits about him drew;
"What then.?' sang Plato's ghost. "What then?'
The work is done,' grown old he thought,
"According to my boyish plan;
Let the fools rage, I swerved in naught,
Something to perfection brought';
But louder sang that ghost, "What then?'
-- W. B. Yeats
----
Pedro de Oliveira
State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Steven Bayne
Your effort here is appreciated. You
have at once illuminated and deepened
the mystery. Especially interesting is the selection
from 'The Circus Animals' Desertion' (line 5).
However, I find the explanation by Albright
This refrain, then, presents an inner voice
mocking the vanity of earthly endeavours.
incomplete at best. If what Plato says in the Phaedo
about ghosts was read and appreciated by
Yeats, then I think that a less incomplete explanation,
or at least one more satisfying, is possible. In the
Phaedo, being in a ghostlike state is transitory -
whence "what then?" seems to be a natural
question. Phaedo 81d tells us that
the wicked - the unfulfilled in Yeat's case? - wander
as ghosts
...until at last, through craving for the corporeal,
which unceasingly pursues them, they are imprisoned
once more in a body.
Only this new embodiment is in the form of an
an animal suitable to the character "they have
developed during life." Is it reasonably possible
that the ghost that Yeats becomes is a ghost such
as Plato describes and is thus describable as
"Plato's ghost," albeit the ghost of Yeats?
If so there is sense to the question "What then?"
That is, what incarnation will such a being take
next? This may not *be* a melancholy poem,
although chances are it is. A reflection on how
earthly success can be disquieting to the poetic
imagination is "thematic" but is made more interesting
by the way it is expressed. It is the mode of
expression Albright fails to explain, I'm afraid.
Yeats sometimes writes of other ghost like things
("Apparitions") but he seems cognizant of the difference
between apparitions and ghosts and probably knew
at least as much Plato as today's poets.
Steve Bayne
Pedro Rocha de Oliveira
I find your remarks very interesting and indeed, being a passionate student
of Yeats' stuff as I am, quite inspiring. I agree with you that Albright's
view does not exaust all the possible meanings contained in the poem.
Discursive, explicitly rational interpretation of poetic work is almost
always like that, is it not so? And, in some, I feel this topic brings back
to the question about metaphors and the "stylistic" demands that
characterise a "truly philosophic" text, for I reckon that "symbolic"
texts, like poems or religious writings for instance, seem to convey a much
higher density of meaning than explicitly logical argumentation, this
density being responsible for the myriad of possible interpretations of
these kinds of texts. I would like very much to study this issue more
carefully someday. Well, I'll have to graduate first I suppose.
Steve wrote:
>Yeats sometimes writes of other ghost like things
>("Apparitions") but he seems cognizant of the difference
>between apparitions and ghosts and probably knew
>at least as much Plato as today's poets.
Yeats tells us, I think it is in his "A Vision", that he actually studied
some philosophy, specially Plato (I could look this up for you) as part of
his effort toward making a systematic exposition of the doctrine taught him
by the entities he calls the "Communicators", who manifested through his
wife Georgie's "automatic writting" (this effort culminated in his "A
Vision"). Other than Plato, Yeats was acquaited with some ancient
philosophy (right now, I can bring to my mind references to Empedocles and
Heracleitus), and since he studied Theosophy, and worked in a translation
of the Upanishads, we may take he was more or less familiar with eastern
thought.
Pedro R. de Oliveira
Steven Bayne
I am glad that you think it is not a waste
of time looking at poetry philosophically.
If I were allowed a bit of "free verse" myself
it would include something like: "Every
superscript is merely an excuse for want of a
philosophical poem." I will conclude this
excursion by citing a poet who defends his
craft eloquently in the face of its philosophical
justification. He is, I believe with the possible
exception of Edgar Allen Poe the best
poet to come out of the United States.
A good URL is:
http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/ferlinghetti.html
Steve Bayne
Constantly Risking Absurdity
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he's the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence
Pedro Rocha de Oliveira wrote:
> Steven,
>
> I find your remarks very interesting and indeed, being a passionate student
> of Yeats' stuff as I am, quite inspiring. I agree with you that Albright's
> view does not exaust all the possible meanings contained in the poem.
> Discursive, explicitly rational interpretation of poetic work is almost
> always like that, is it not so? And, in some, I feel this topic brings back
> to the question about metaphors and the "stylistic" demands that
> characterise a "truly philosophic" text, for I reckon that "symbolic"
> texts, like poems or religious writings for instance, seem to convey a much
> higher density of meaning than explicitly logical argumentation, this
> density being responsible for the myriad of possible interpretations of
> these kinds of texts. I would like very much to study this issue more
> carefully someday. Well, I'll have to graduate first I suppose.
>
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