Poems of W.B. Yeats: The Rose
Meaning of the following quotes?
"A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun..."
"Vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle..."
"A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun..."
"Vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle..."
This alludes to the Egyptian sphinx, "lion body and the head of a man." This unnatural joining of man and animal represents the darkness that creeps in on humanity.