Bankers, Schoolmasters, and Clergymen (Symbol)
When describing the hard work of writing poetry, the speaker contrasts the figure of the poet—and the manual laborer, whom he metaphorically equates to the poet—with that of the banker, schoolmaster, and clergyman. These figures look down on poets, devaluing their hard work and imagining them to be idle or lazy. Yeats here uses these three professions as a shorthand for respectable middle-class society. He suggests that, whereas poets work hard to produce something that seems effortless, these members of the professional classes merely enact an appearance of busyness and industriousness. In this way, they are the mirror image of the poet, as well as one of the obstacles to beauty in the world. By foregrounding and prioritizing the appearance of work rather than the hard-won appearance of ease, they betray, or at least abandon, the struggle to create beautiful things.
The Moon (Symbol)
As he is reflecting on his losses and adversity, particularly in the realm of romantic love, the speaker gazes up at the moon. To him, the moon seems physically eroded, as if it is a shell that has been degraded over time by the movement of water. The moon symbolizes the speaker's own tiredness, brought on by the ravages of time. He reflects that he and his lover once believed themselves to be happy—but, just as time itself has worn away the moon, time has also worn away this apparent happiness and exposed the underlying ugly truths. The moon is often linked to femininity, romance, and mystery, making the poem's weary moon an especially apt symbol for depleted, timeworn love.
