William Butler Yeats “No Second Troy”

In this poem the author Yeats was conveying his personal feeling about his love. He asks himself a series of questions and then in turn answers then as to bring into perspective his true feelings.

“Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways.” (p1118 lives 1-3)

In these lines he speaks of how he should not blame his love for filling his life with misery because she is not capable of finding a proper outlet for her beauty. It is as if he is trying to say that her beauty is a curse. In the last line of this poem,

“Was there another troy for her to burn?” (p1118. line 12).

He makes the comparison of his love with “Helen of Troy” by saying that her beauty was so provoking that it could cause thousands of warships to set sail to Troy in addition to causing a war which lasted ten years. Was she that intoxicating, how could one woman posses so much power over men?