Sunday Poem

WHY should not old men be mad?

WHY should not old men be mad?
Some have known a likely lad
That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
Turn to a drunken journalist;
A girl that knew all Dante once
Live to bear children to a dunce;
A Helen of social welfare dream,
Climb on a wagonette to scream.
Some think it a matter of course that chance
Should starve good men and bad advance,
That if their neighbours figured plain,
As though upon a lighted screen,
No single story would they find
Of an unbroken happy mind,
A finish worthy of the start.
Young men know nothing of this sort,
Observant old men know it well;
And when they know what old books tell
And that no better can be had,
Know why an old man should be mad.
 

-  from On The Boiler by William Butler Yeats

Comments

[Daniel]

I am having trouble understanding the following lines, any insight would be most appreciated:

- "A Helen of social welfare dream,
Climb on a wagonette to scream."

I assume Helen refers to Helen of Troy but I haven't a clue what "climb..."refers to.

- " That if their neighbours figured plain,
As though upon a lighted screen,"

Neighbors figured plain? Huh?

Sorry if this makes me seem like a total dunce.

[Stumblng Tumblr]

The Helen (of Troy) being referred to was Maud Gonne.
Her climbing on a wagonette to scream refers to the suffragette movement.

[Daniel]

I see. That's what annoys me about a lot of poetry. Without that information much of the meaning is muddled. I guess us uneducated folk will have to wallow in our own ignorance.

Thanks for the response, anyhow.

[Yiri]

@Daniel:

Aye, I can see how it might annoy - on the other hand, if poetry would only be considered as such if the it was written in language as timeless as the feelings it means to stir... all the best poems one could possibly wish for would probably be written or generated by now.

No use for poets in such a world, I would fear :-)