W.B Yeats' Poem "The Folly of Being Comforted"
The Irish Poet Yeats Describes the Pain Due to Unrequited Love
Nov 2, 2009
The lover’s intellect, in an effort to ease the pain of unrequited love describes the physical changes, wrought by time, evident in the beloved’s appearance, and counsels the heart to find gratification in her waning beauty. The kind friend hopes that the woman’s aging will enable the unrequited lover to accept her indifference.
Yeats Uses Euphemism to Convey Sympathy
Euphemistic diction conveys the friend’s sympathetic attitude towards the lover in an effort to convince him of the beloved’s ebbing beauty. “Threads of gray” depict her hair and “shadows…about her eyes” portray darkened, sagging skin. However, the aging signs which are obvious in just one “turn [of] her head” cannot undermine her beauty in the eyes of the infatuated lover. The lover’s intellect reinforces his argument by explaining that with the passing of time the heart will be wiser and able to accept the facts – the loss of the woman’s beauty and her apathy towards him.
Metaphors of Fire to Show Pain, Love and Desire
The metaphorical significance of the “fire that stirs about her, when she stirs,” emphasizes the lover’s constant passion for the beloved in spite of her aging. He feels pain and regret on being informed that the woman no longer looks beautiful. He considers the element of her lively, noble beauty, which ignites and arouses him, to “[burn] but more clearly”: she is even more attractive to him now than in her youth or “wild summer days.” The lover rejects the comfort his friend holds out to him and his constancy outweighs his beloved’s listlessness. Kind words and explanations of a dawning wisdom offer him not “a crumb of comfort” because time, for him, only increases her beauty and strengthens his feelings.
The developed fire metaphor both expresses the lover’s passion towards the woman and describes the woman through his eyes. She has a fire within her that “burns but more clearly” and causes the lover’s feelings to rekindle. The woman’s dynamic inner glow attracts and excites him. The lover also has a fire burning within him which is ignited by her - - stirred by her very presence and the smallest movement she makes. The theme of fiery passion ablaze within him but long since extinguished in the beloved is reinforced by the metaphor. The effect of the metaphor is ironic too, for the beloved herself is cold.
Yeats' Breaks in Poetry Patterns Show Refusal to Accept Intellect's Argument
A break in line pattern falling where “Heart cries ‘No’,” reinforces the lover’s rejection of the logic and kind words proffered by his intellect. The lover’s heart remains unaffected by rational argument. The kind friend again expresses euphemistically “if she’d but turn her head”, not only to point out the aging of the woman but to emphasize that if she felt affection for the lover it would be evident in her face. The lover’s “Heart [crying] ‘No’” expresses adamancy that with time, satisfaction can still be attained from his beloved’s beauty. He perceives no folly in any form of comfort he feels, in spite of his intellect’s attempt to convince him otherwise.
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