William Butler Yeats

It is no surprise that someone with an unrequited love such as Yeats would write a poem titled, "The Sorrow of Love“. The Structure is fairly straightforward and recognizable. In summary, the poem starts with a description of some worldly things described by words with a positive connotation. After the first stanza, when the love interest is introduced, we see a kind of realization that all the bad things in the world have come along with this person. The third stanza is a mirror image of the first stanza that reflects things in a negative or pessimistic version of the first. This is a depressing poem with maybe a hint of real world value in that a love interest can bring realization of many things not previously noticed even if they are pessimistic things. What is to be focused on this poem mostly is probably the last line of stanza one and three. Something about the person in stanza two causes “the earth’s old weary cry” to become uncovered from the natural things described. It is as if a woman destroyed the simplicity or tranquility of nature itself.