The full round moon and the star-laden sky,
Th e song of the ever-singing leaves,
Ha d hushed away earth's old and weary cry.
1. Originally composed in Yeats's Pre-Raphaelite precision and colloquial vigor. mode of the early 1890s, 'The Sorrow of Love' was 2. Manuscript version composed in October one of his most popular poems. Nonetheless, some 1891. as transcribed by Jon Stallw orthy, Betiveen thirty years after publication, Yeats rewrote the the Lines: Yeats's Poetry in the Making (Oxford Unilyric in accordance with modernism's emphasis on versity Press, 1963), pp. 47-48.
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A2 0 / POEMS IN PROCESS
And then you came with those red mournful lips, And with you came the whole of the world's tears, An d all the sorrows of her labouring ships, An d all the burden of her million years.
And now the angry sparrows in the eaves, Th e withered moon, the white stars in the sky, Th e wearisome loud chanting of the leaves, Are shaken with earth's old and weary cry.
3
[First Printed Version, I892]
Th e quarrel of the sparrows in the eaves, The full round moon and the star-laden sky, An d the loud song of the ever-singing leaves Ha d hid away earth's old and weary cry.
And then you came with those red mournful lips, And with you came the whole of the world's tears, An d all the sorrows of her labouring ships, An d all burden of her myriad years.
An d now the sparrows warring in the eaves, Th e crumbling moon, the white stars in the sky, An d the loud chanting of the unquiet leaves, Are shaken with earth's old and weary cry.
[Final Printed Version, 1925]4
Th e brawling of a sparrow in the eaves, Th e brilliant moo n and all the milky sky, And all that famous harmony of leaves, Ha d blotted out man's image and his cry.
A girl arose that had red mournful lips An d seemed the greatness of the world in tears, Doome d like Odysseus and the labouring ships And proud as Priam murdered with his peers;
3. From Yeats's The Countess Kathleen and Vari-p. 321, that 'in later years' he had 'learnt that ous Legends and Lyrics (1892). In a corrected page occasional prosaic words gave the impression of an proof for this printing, now in the Garvan Collec-active man speaking,' so that 'certain words must tion of the Yale University Library, lines 7?8 orig-be dull and numb. Here and there in correcting my inally read 'And all the sorrows of his labouring early poems I have introduced such numbness and ships, / An d all the burden of his married years.' dullness, turned, for instance, 'the curd-pale moon' Also, in lines 4 and 12, the adjective was 'bitter' into the 'brilliant moon', that all might seem, as it instead of 'weary.' In his Poems (1895), Yeats were, remembered with indifference, except some inserted the missing 'the' in line 8 and changed one vivid image.' Yeats, however, did not recall his 'sorrows' (line 7) to 'trouble'; 'burden' (line 8) to emendations accurately. He had in 1925 altered 'trouble'; and 'crumbling moon' (line 10) to 'the full round moon' (line 2) to 'the brilliant 'curd-pale moon.' moon,' and 'the curd-pale moon' (line 10, version 4. From Early Poems and Stories (1925). Yeats of 1895) to 'a climbing moon.' wrote in his Autobiographies (Ne w York, 1999),
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POEMS IN PROCESS / A21
Arose, and on the instant clamorous eaves, A climbing moon upon an empty sky, And all that lamentation of the leaves, Could but compose man's image and his cry.
Leda and the Swan5
[First Version]
^^^^ ^ Annunciation
Now CEML the swooping Godhead have his will Yet hovors, though her helpless thighs are pressed By the webbed toes; and that all powerful bill Has suddenly bowed her face upon his breast. How can those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs? All the stretched body's laid on that white rush
strange
And feels the Strang heart beating where it lies A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead. . . .
Being so caught up Did nothing pass before her in the air? Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop
Sept 18 1923
* swooping rThe Utuiibt godhead is half hovering still,
climbs
Yet ?4iiill5*. upon her trembling body pressed
webbed
By the toes; & through that all powerful bill
tfcpoan* bowed
^Has suddenly bowed her face upon his breast. How those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs
All th^tretched body leans on fchatiwhite rush
