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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MEDITATIONS IN TIME OF CIVIL WAR: 5. THE ROAD AT MY DOOR by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: AN AFFABLE IRREGULAR, / A HEAVILY BUILT FALSTAFFIAN MAN
Last Line: And turn towards my chamber, caught / in the cold snows of a dream
Subject(s): IRELAND - REBELLIONS; SOLDIERS;
An affable Irregular,
A heavily-built Falstaffian man,
Comes cracking jokes of civil war
As though to die by gunshot were
The finest play under the sun.
A brown Lieutenant and his men,
Half dressed in national uniform,
Stand at my door, and I complain
Of the foul weather, hail and rain,
A pear-tree broken by the storm.
I count those feathered balls of soot
The moor-hen guides upon the stream.
To silence the envy in my thought;
And turn towards my chamber, caught
In the cold snows of a dream.



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