Commentary: The Scholars by W.B. Yeats.

William Butler Yeats is a renowned turn of the century poet. He composed a countless number of works while alive, one of which was The Scholars. The Scholars was written in two stanzas, each comprised of six verses. While on the surface level this poem may not carry much deep meaning, a little research and understanding of the more meaningful allusions and other literary devices within the poem reveals a whole other level.

The first stanza is the more bland of the two. Yeats starts out by writing: “Bald heads, forgetful of their sins.” Here we see Yeats referring to the scholars as ‘bald heads’, which can say a lot. First off, by the tone and way in which he uses it, along with the fact that bald is somewhat socially unacceptable and therefore implies a negative connotation, we can assume he is saying it with a negative connotation. ‘Forgetful of their sins’ refers to the idea that as the scholars write commentaries on Yeats’ work, and on others, they criticize the work as though they had forgotten their own mistakes, or sins. The next verse, “Old, learned, respectable bald heads”, shows that even though Yeats is referring to the critics and scholars as being the ‘bald heads’, he is still showing them some respect. The stanza then continues:

[…] Edit and annotate the lines

that young men, tossing on their beds,

Rhymed out in love’s despair

To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear.

The rest of this stanza a metaphor for the poems that the Roman lyric poet Catullus wrote for a woman with whom he was in love, Lesbia. This can be interpreted as such because of Yeats’ reference to Catullus at the end of the poem. Since it is now understood that Catullus is being referred to in this metaphor, it can also now be said that bald heads not only refers to scholars and critics, but also to translators that may have translated Catullus’ works. Because each translation represents a bit of the translator, it is therefore in itself ...

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The first stanza not only has some profound metaphorical meaning with in it, but it also has some important technical aspects. First off, the first two verses open and close with the phrase ‘bald heads’:

Bald heads, forgetful of their sins,

Old, learned, respectable bald heads […]

This form of repetition helps to enclose these first two verses and separate them a bit from this rest of the stanza, almost like a small introduction. However, Yeats’ rhyme scheme then rhymes ‘heads’ at the end of the second verse, with ‘beds’ at the end of the fourth. This helps to keep the first two verses tied in with the rest of the stanza, and prevent them from sounding too disjointed. This stanza only has 2 other verses that rhyme together, and these are the last two; however, it is interesting to note that the first four verses of the stanza all end with ‘-s’. You can see, looking up at page 1, that ‘despair’ and ‘ear’ have a certain rhyme to them. These last two verses are also set apart from the rest, both by the independent rhyming, and by their rhythm. They flow off the tongue better than the rest of the stanza does. Notice that the rhythm of the first four verses had been a bit choppy, and this helps the flow of the last two to be a bit more distinct. The first stanza is comprised of six verses, the first four of which are eight syllables each, the fifth verse is six syllables and the last is nine. This struck me to be a bit irregular.

Thus far through the poem, the speaker has remained omniscient and the tone has remained calm. In the second stanza, the speaker is still omniscient, however the tone along with the rhythm changes a great deal. Yeats not only says ‘ALL’ at the beginning of each verse, referring to the ‘bald heads’, but he even splits the first verse into two smaller verses: “All shuffle there; all cough in ink.” Notice that the ‘all’ really affects the rhythm of the poem, and puts a lot of emphasis on the scholars. Again, like in the first stanza, Yeats has used repetition. Here, instead of having the second and fourth verses rhyme, it’s the first and third. The most important two lines are the last two, which again rhyme with each other yet apart from the rest. The first 4 verses of this stanza all each have eight syllables, and the first was subdivided into two smaller verses, each of four syllables.

The second stanza changes from the first in that Yeats really solidifies his allusions here, and brings the whole poem together. This stanza therefore has more meaning to it than the one before, and it also alludes directly to Catullus, an important aspect of this poem. The first four verses place a lot of emphasis on grouping the scholars, critics and translators, anything that Yeats could have been alluding to, into one group:

All shuffle there; all cough in ink;

All wear the carpet with their shoes;

All think what other people think;

All know the man their neighbour knows.

This is very important to the overall significance of the poem, because it is important to understand that the scholars and translators acted as one. For example, at one period of time, all the scholars were translating Catullus a certain way, and as time progressed, scholars shifted as a whole to translating him in another different way. The first three verses all talk about the idea that the scholars work a lot; i.e., “all cough in ink”. A very important line here is the third verse, “all think what other people think”. This again ties into Catullus and his works, and their treatment over time. Yeats finishes the poem by writing:

Lord, what would they say

Did their Catullus walk that way?

Here Yeats mentions Catullus, and ties the whole poem together. After doing some research, I found out that Catullus was, like I said, a Roman lyric poet. He also spent most of his time writing love poems for Lesbia, the woman he was in love with. In the early 18th century, Catullus was translated as a very extravagant and artificially poetic poet. However, as time progressed, scholars and translators shifted away from this, and began translating Catullus much more bluntly, and with out too much of their own interpretation. Therefore, when Yeats says ‘ all think what other people think’, this refers directly to the scholars translations and other works. It is saying that they translate or comment on something based on what the other scholars had commented about it or how the other scholars had translated it. ‘Lord, what would they say’ is asking just that; if the scholars could step back and look at the way they are mistranslating and misinterpreting the works, what would they say, how would they react. ‘Did their Catullus walk that way’ is asking if the individual scholar’s interpretation was actually what the interpretation of Catullus was as a whole. Basically, here Yeats is asking the scholars if they actually agree with what they had written, and if their translation or commentary would not have been different had it not been influenced by the rest of the scholars.

When one first reads this poem, it is hard to understand its meaning with out already knowing about Catullus and the situation that surrounded him. I found the poem to be rather meaningless and bland prior to researching Catullus. There was a point where I believed this poem was an allegory, referring to a deeper meaning. But now I don’t really believe that it is an allegory so much as it is a metaphor. Catullus and his mistranslations and misinterpretations is a metaphor for the possible interpretations of Yeats’ work by the scholars. All and all, this poem when from a seemingly bland poem into something rich and full of meaning.