The Tower

In this section – The Tower- The poem of same name is thoroughly satisfying. This poem seems to codify Yeats’s thoughts, but also the themes and characters that he has used in other poems (Hanrahan for example) in his self-referential way. This poem more than any of the previous poems echoes Yeats’s own personal fears and obsessions in a tone not unlike stream of consciousness, it seems as if the narrator (not necessarily Yeats) is having a discussion with himself, and trying to come to terms with death. Or perhaps think his way out of it, if that is at all possible. The opening line “What shall I do with this absurdity-“ combined with the longer sections and fewer roman numerals add to the tone of contemplation. There are many of the same images and words repeated (most that have previously appeared in other poems) but here they are given a greater weight. It is not necessarily immediacy but finality, death is not an argument that can be won OR lost, we all simply lose at one time or another, and this fact troubles both the narrator of this poem and the author (obviously Yeats);

“And send imagination forth
Under the days declining beam, and call
Images and memories
From ruin or from ancient trees
For I would ask a question of them all.”(20-24)

This notion that knowledge is somehow paramount in cheating or negotiating death is an interesting one. In his more fantastic manner perhaps Yeats believes that the more he knows or understands death the more prepared he will be? He goes on to mention Tragedy and Homer, and the fact that Homer was blind… I am not sure exactly what to make of this within the context of the poem, or generally speaking. Sight is historically tricky- Once Oedipus realizes what he has done he pokes out his own eyes, lady justice wears a blindfold, and apparently the wise poet Homer was blind. What is the role of sight in this poem? He wishes to see beyond the scope of human affairs, does he also wish to preview what awaits him? Perhaps this is cause for his other obsession- sleep- the small death/dress rehearsal.

Yeats deals with his usual suspects: Sleep, Dreams, gyres, and of course death, but he does so much more explicitly here than in any other place thus far. He goes so far as to express a desire to know the grave. The most striking connection is his mention of the swan:

“When the swan must fix his eye
Upon a fading gleam,
Float out upon a ling
Last reach of glittering stream
And there sing his last song.”

This last song- his swan song- is interesting since his last collection was called the Wilde Swan at Coole, and sometimes his titles reveal more than the poem or promise more than the poet/poem is willing to deliver. It is interesting to think of the significance of this section and first poem having the name The Tower. What does this say of the poem or the other poem in the section?

A last thought: he mentions young men in tone that both mourns his lost youth, but also perhaps passes the torch to this generation of men, and what does he leave them? He wants to leave them "faith and pride" an odd combination. The line he chooses to leave the reader with is unexpectedly succinct and effectively chilly:

"When the horizon fades;
Or a bird's sleepy cry
Among the deepening shades."

In these lines as well as the lines referring to the swans last song he mentions a "fading gleam" - a horizon- and deepening shades, all these obscure vision, perhaps this is why he mentions Homer and why sight, seeing, and knowing are so important to him, when you die you close your eyes, and see nothing. Perhaps vision and sight are his reassurances that he is alive, not sleeping, dreaming, or worse.