No Second Troy by W.B Yeats - Summary
W.B Yeats published the poem in his poetry collection of "The Green Helmet and Other Poems". It reflects the miseries of Yeats caused due to Maud Gonne, his crush and her firebrand revolutionary character. He had proposed her multiple times but each time she rejected him, but his obsession with her took much time to end. His unrequited love towards her continued till her loss of sanity. Here in the poem, he compares her to Helen of Trojan War fame who led to the widespread loss of lives and rampant destruction of the city of Troy. The poem follows the Rhyming scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF. The narrator laments that he should not blame Gonne for the rejection and miseries she caused to him which made his life full of gloom. Dut to her activeness in Revolutionary politics regarding the Irish Independence from the Great Britain which calls for the violent uprising from the common people of Ireland. Yeats criticises the way she is putting the lives of these ignorant men on the line.