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The poem's title is intended, first, to bring to mind the Second Coming of Christ. That even lovers drown. Have a specific question about this poem? View all The taboos surrounding sex between humans and animals are just too deeply ingrained for the mermaid to remain a mere mammal in the eyes (and hearts) of those men compelled to make love to her. We know that time has passed because the speaker has repeatedly been denied by his lover (hence the thirst and the empty cup). Cruel happiness indeed. With his taste for autocracy, contempt for the masses and fascination with fascism (at least in its first decade), he would have been surprised to find his poem deployed as a spur for the defence of liberal democracy. Yeats is the greatest poet in the history of Ireland and Barnum. Darryl Hannah's lovely, lithe, naive and gentle portrayal in "A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him up for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown." W.B. Someone reading it for the first time in 2020 might resemble the apocryphal theatregoer who complained that Hamlet was nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together. And 20Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle. Renews March 11, 2023 Yeats himself was not exactly SDP material. From the terrible beauty of Easter 1916 to the fractured moments of Leda and the Swan and The Second Coming always oxymoron, collision, rupture. Crucial to The Second Coming was the symbol of the gyre (a cone or spiral) and Yeatss conviction that history moved in 2,000-year cycles. His elaborate iconography takes elements from Irish The Mermaid by William Butler Yeats A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown. is a Scottish undine, or water elemental, half woman and half goat, who could be seen on land but who was nevertheless associated with water (sounds like Capricorn to me). The speaker laughs because one cry is love, and the other pride. Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools. All rights reserved. The Mermaid Theory - Wikipedia experience and interpretive understanding. Dont have an account? 21And what rough beast, its hour come round at last. This free poetry study guide will help you understand what you're reading. Font size: It may also be true that the elusivity of these human-like sea creatures also added to the myth. mermaid, masculine merman, a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish. Forgot in cruel happiness. Wed love to have you back! morgan, respectively. The Mists of Avalon William Butler Yeats is a poet who was born in 1865 and died in 1939. In 2007, after the Brookings Institute called its report on Iraq Things Fall Apart, the New York Times claimed: The Second Coming is fast becoming the official poem of the Iraq war. You could find similar claims being made regarding the financial crisis, the Arab spring and, now, the age of rightwing populism. The speaker is in such pain at his unrequited love that he longs to call out. Yeats's Poetry: Themes | SparkNotes If I were alone I would cry like a peacock or sing a stone a lullaby, for that is natural for one who lives only in memory.