Helen Of Troy Analysis

W.B. Yeats had the rare ability to instill imagery, emotions, and his feelings into his poems in such a way that would move us. He loved to use history, particularly Irish history, and embed it into the language of his poems. Yeats was inspired by the way rural peasants of Ireland would tell the old stories of the Irish, and he went so far as to say in his Nobel Prize dialogue that their speech was “our most powerful dramatic instrument.” As a result of studying and employing the speech of this peasantry, Yeats incorporated the fibers and the stories of history into his writing through modeling their speech. By incorporating into his work the stories and characters of Celtic origin, Yeats endeavored to encapsulate something of the national

She may have cared for him, but she never loved him as he loved her. She turned down more than one marriage proposal proffered by Yeats. What is interesting about this poem is Yeats comparison of Maud Gonne to Helen of Troy, which is an enigmatic comparison at first thought because she is the reason for the Trojan War, whereas Maud Gonne is only responsible for hurting Yeats emotionally. Upon further reading and understanding of both stories, we realize the point Yeats is trying to make. Although he says that Maud is like Helen, he turns around the meaning and significance of the myth associated with Helen. Known as the daughter of Zeus, she was taken back to Troy after marriage by Paris and this brought on the war between the Greeks and Trojans. Yeats uses traits from Helen’s character to make Maud Gonne a heroine-like figure that is filled with courage and fervor. So in hindsight, Yeats is exalting Maud Gonne at times instead of completely denouncing her. “No Second Troy” displays the bitterness and admiration that Yeats had for Maud Gonne by asking four rhetorical questions. His first question is evident in the first three lines of the poem: “Why should I blame her that she filled my days / With misery, or that she would of late