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Death
by William Butler Yeats
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone –
Man has created death.
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Though the title of this piece is ‘Death’ it is a message about how to live and a tribute to someone who lived well.
This poem by W.B. Yeats requires a little bit of outside information to understand it fully. It was published in the collection of poetry to ‘The Winding Stair and other Poems’ and is about Irish political leader, Kevin O’Higgins, who was assassinated in 1927. Yeats wrote during a politically turbulent period in the history of Ireland, including the Irish Civil War which occurred in 1922 and 1923. The poem itself is not rigidly about O’Higgins, though, and its message could be applied more broadly.
The poem is 12 lines and is perhaps the shortest poem ever published by Yeats. The piece has a rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF. Each line (except line 5) is written in iambic trimeter.
Lines 1 – 4:
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
The piece starts with a contrast. Mankind is unique among those species who live, inasmuch as men live with concern for their end. Everything else simply lives. Yeats’ use of the words “dreading” and “hoping” implies a further division within humanity itself – some who fear their end and some who do not.
Lines 5 – 6:
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
Line 5 seems to echo a sentiment from Shakespeare.
“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Thus line 5 might refer to the many times his Great Man felt great fear. His greatness is explained though in line 6 where we are told he rose again. We know that Yeats wrote this poem about Kevin O’Higgins, who lived through several assassination attempts before he was eventually killed. O’Higgins undoubtedly felt great fear on those occasions, but then continued to return to the work that put him in danger. He thus overcame his own death.
Lines 7 – 10:
Lines 7 and 8 clarify the cause of the great man’s dread and the meaning of the idea that he rose again. He was confronting murderous men.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
The great man confronts those who are trying to kill him and he scoffs at the thing by which they threaten him. Yeats tells us that the great man would view the work of his life as more important than his own life. Thus he overcomes fear and death (line 6).
Lines 11 – 12:
He knows death to the bone –
Man has created death.
What does Yeats mean that “man has created death.” If we tie this line to the first few lines of the piece, then we might assume that Yeats’ great man believes death is unique to man inasmuch as the dread of death is a fear or cowardice not present among animals. As a result, man did create death by dreading its coming and man can also know and overcome that fear. I do not believe that Yeats is arguing against the reality of actually dying (animals also actually die), however, he does seem to be making the case for a fearless life.
The type of person who lives such a life will be remembered, and thus that life will endure, long after his body is gone.