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William Butler Yeats often extrapolates his experiences into poetry. His poems are rarely autobiographical in a strict sense, but combine elements of personal experiences with literary history. “No Second Troy” is part of a larger suite of Yeats’s poetry that deals with his relationship with Maud Gonne (See: Further Reading & Resources). Gonne was a stern Irish nationalist and the primary recipient of Yeats’s romantic attention. Yeats proposed marriage to Gonne multiple times, and each time Gonne refused. While the basis of Gonne’s refusal changed depending on the circumstances of Yeats’s proposal, she found it hard to reconcile herself to Yeats’s inactivity in the Irish nationalist movement.
While Yeats was in support of Irish nationalism—or the burgeoning movement to liberate Ireland from English control—his support rarely extended beyond the intellectual sphere. Yeats, concerned by the threads of violence he saw in the movement, strayed from the Irish nationalist movement as he aged. This concern over the movement’s violence informs Yeats’s choice of metaphor. By comparing the movement to the Trojan War, Yeats implies it will result in a long, violent struggle like the mythological 10-year war. Gonne, meanwhile, married nationalist Major John MacBride in 1903.
By William Butler Yeats
Among School Children
William Butler Yeats
A Prayer for My Daughter
William Butler Yeats
A Vision: An Explanation of Life Founded upon the Writings of Giraldus and upon Certain Doctrines Attributed to Kusta Ben Luka
William Butler Yeats
Cathleen Ni Houlihan
William Butler Yeats
Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop
William Butler Yeats
Death
William Butler Yeats
Easter, 1916
William Butler Yeats
Leda and the Swan
William Butler Yeats
Sailing to Byzantium
William Butler Yeats
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
William Butler Yeats
The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats
The Wild Swans at Coole
William Butler Yeats
When You Are Old
William Butler Yeats