Under the Moon by W.B. Yeats (1899)
The piece critiques the seductive allure of myth and fantasy as insufficient to alleviate the burdens of human experience. It rejects the idealized visions of enchanted landscapes and legendary figures—iconic queens, heroes, and transformative beings—that traditionally offer escape or renewal. Instead, it portrays the act of dreaming about such mythic realms as laden with sorrow and disillusionment, emphasizing that the beauty and wonder of these fictions ultimately serve to remind one of unattainable ideals and persistent melancholy. The narrator systematically dismisses the various storied realms—from lush, idyllic isles to mysterious lands under celestial light—despite their historical and cultural grandeur. These places, replete with symbolic figures and transformative narratives, fail to bring genuine happiness or fulfillment. Even when the imagination ventures into these exalted spaces, the expected ecstasy is replaced by a burdensome awareness of loss and despair. At its core, the text challenges the notion that retreating into fantastical narratives can mitigate the inherent sufferings of life. Instead, it suggests that clinging to these dreams only deepens the emotional weight of reality, as the ephemeral beauty of legends and mythic metamorphoses starkly contrasts with the immutable nature of human anguish. The recounting of ancient stories and the invocation of a rich mythology are not celebrations of escape but rather acknowledgments of a perpetual dissonance between idealized memory and the unyielding truth of mortal existence. This tension between the ephemeral charm of otherworldly legends and the intrinsic sorrow of lived experience becomes a meditation on the limitations of imagination. It serves as a poignant reminder that while myths may illuminate aspects of beauty and transformation, they also underscore the unbridgeable gap between the ephemeral and the real, leaving the dreamer with the painful burden of an unfulfilled longing for an unreachable paradise.
By W.B. Yeats · First published 1899 · Genre: Mythological Poetry, Symbolist Poetry, Romantic Poetry · 298 words
First lines
I have no happiness in dreaming of Brycelinde; / Nor Avalon the grass green hollow, nor Joyous Isle, / Where one found Lancelot crazed and hid him for a while, / Nor Ulad when Naoise had thrown a sail upon the wind, / Nor lands that seem too dim to be burdens on the heart, / Land-under-Wave, where out of the moon's light and the sun's / Seven old sisters wind the threads of the long lived ones, / Land-of-the-Tower, where Aengus has thrown the gates apart, / And Wood-of-Wonders, where one kills an ox at dawn / To find it when night falls laid on a golden bier: / Therein are many queens like Branwen, and Guinivere; / And Niam, and Laban, and Fand, who could change to an otter or fawn / And the wood-woman whose lover was changed to a blue-eyed hawk; / And whether I go in my dreams by woodland, or dun, or shore, / Or on the unpeopled waves with kings to pull at the oar, / I hear the harp string praise them or hear their mournful talk.
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Under the Moon is listed on Textopian as a poem by W.B. Yeats, dated 1899 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: W.B. Yeats
- Date: 1899 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Mythological Poetry, Symbolist Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Fantasy Poetry, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 298 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Mythological Poetry — The poem heavily references mythic figures and legendary places, drawing on Celtic and Arthurian myth to shape its narrative.
- Symbolist Poetry — The work uses vivid, dreamlike imagery and symbols to convey abstract ideas and emotions, characteristic of Symbolism.
- Romantic Poetry — The poetic language and focus on individual emotion and the idealized past align with Romantic literary traditions.
- Fantasy Poetry — The evocation of magical landscapes and fantastical narratives places the work within a realm of poetic fantasy.
Tags
symbolism · romantic · mythology · spirituality · mysticism · nature · ethereal · imaginative · visionary · allegorical · dreamlike · transcendental