After Long Silence: A Poem by W B Yeats
A short poem that reflects on how the passing of time can change perspectives
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was undoubtedly one of the greatest poets writing in English in the period spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, was at one time a member of the Irish Senate, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1923). He wrote and published poetry throughout his life, with “After Long Silence” appearing in his 1932 collection entitled “Words for Music Perhaps”.
“After Long Silence” comprises eight lines written in iambic pentameter, although the first line is highly irregular. The rhyme scheme is ABBACDDC, although the BB and DD pairs are half-rhymes (dead/shade) and (song/young). The poem comprises one complete sentence, spoken by the poet to his loved one, although it is soon clear that they are both getting on in years (Yeats was 67 when the poem was published, but it could have been written a year or two earlier). The message is a simple and straightforward one, namely that wisdom grows with age but at the cost of physical beauty. However, in this poem Yeats dramatizes the fact by placing it in a real context to which the reader can relate.
