Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUPERNATURAL SONGS: 7. WHAT MAGIC DRUM? by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: HE HOLDS HIM FROM DESIRE, ALL BUT STOPS HIS BREATHING LEST
Last Line: What from the forest came? What beast has licked its young?
Subject(s): DESIRE;
He holds him from desire, all but stops his breathing lest
primordial Motherhood forsake his limbs, the child no
longer rest,
Drinking joy as it were milk upon his breast.
Through light-obliterating garden foliage what magic
drum?
Down limb and breast or down that glimmering belly
move his mouth and sinewy tongue.
What from the forest came? What beast has licked its young?



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