No Second Troy Memory and the Past Quotes Page 1
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| Quote #1 What could have made her peaceful with a mind |
Modern people are messy and complicated; we tend to think of the ancients as being simpler and more consistent. Maud Gonne's passion is simple and pure, like a flame. Yeats is laying the groundwork to compare her with Helen of Troy.
| Quote #2 With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind |
Gonne is literally a woman from another age, a blast from the past. Her appearance – and also her character – seem straight out of a culture that uses bows and arrows...Hmm, we wonder what culture that might be...
| Quote #3 Was there another Troy for her to burn? (line 12) |
Ah, yes, Yeats always has to bring the Greeks into it. Maud Gonne is suddenly blended together with Helen of Troy, to form a part-past, part-present superheroine! Following a long tradition in Western literature, Yeats suggests that Helen was largely responsible for the Trojan War by cheating on her husband with a bratty Trojan prince.
