The Rose of the World

The Rose of the World -- William Butler Yeats
Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?
For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,
Mournful that no new wonder may betide,
Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,
And Usna's children died.

We and the labouring world are passing by:
Amid men's souls, that waver and give place
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,
Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.

Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:
Before you were, or any hearts to beat,
Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;
He made the world to be a grassy road
Before her wandering feet.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Yeats

[enossified]

Oui, I meant Shirley.

[Nornegest]

Just a quick one:

The poem in question was written for the Irish revolutionary, Maud Gonne. A "forbidden fruit" obsession and muse to Yeats for many years because he wasn't Catholic and "nationalist" enough for her.

It says much of her feisty nature, but she is immortalized as Helen in several of his poems, one of them bearing the title "No Second Troy".

Thanks for putting this up, by the way, that was fun.

[enossified]

I must have known that about Maud Gonne once upon a time, but it was long since forgotten. Thx. In hindsight, can I lamely draw a corollary between Gonne and Queen Helen?

Yes, it's fun making these xtranormal vids... I had to phonetically spell a couple of the words in order to get the actor to pronounce them correctly: 'Lives,' for example, became 'Livz,' because the interpretor would only read it as rhyming with 'hives'.

[Nornegest]

Oh, I get it now: Shirley.

I guess you could draw some comparisons, since Gonne, besides being an ardent revolutionary, was red haired and one of the most striking beauties of her generation.

Just like our Shirley.

[Nornegest]

"In hindsight, can I lamely draw a corollary between Gonne and Queen Helen?"

Which one? The legendary queen of Sparta, or Shirley Manson?