The Circus Animals' Desertion Literature and Writing Quotes

Any writer will tell you that facing a blank page is pretty much the terror of all terrors. What to do? Well, starting out by declaring your failures is one way to get going. Then again, maybe not.

Notice the strange syntax of this line? It makes it seem like this line is half question, half statement. After all, he has tried for six weeks to come up with other plans of action besides going over all his old work; there really isn't anything else that he can think of doing. But this line suggests that he'd sure like to have other options.

Why compare creative works like poems to a circus show? For one thing, it foregrounds the fact that Yeats now sees himself as a showman putting on entertainment for an audience. And we're guessing that that's not a very positive feeling. After all, circuses aren't considered high art. Maybe Yeats feels his poetry has been cheap or tawdry.

Why is Countess Cathleen a counter-truth? Well, the play about her allows Yeats to trace all the torture and rage he feels as he watches a woman make the wrong choices. (Remember, this play is actually about one of his crushes, who spurned him over and over again, Maud Gonne.) First, he was in love with the idea of a beautiful woman, like the one in the Oisin legend. Now he's frustrated with Gonne's rejection.

What forms can poetry take? Yeats's first answer to the question is the epic. Ireland, like many other cultures, has a rich tradition of mythic and epic poetry, and it's that mythology that Yeats relied on in his early writing career.

"Character" becomes a stand-in for Yeats's own memories and desires, something he later comes to regret. The beautiful figures in his poems become mere projections of his own emotions, not representations of other aspects of the world. In the end, it's all about him.