Poems of W.B. Yeats: The Tower
6. Does the towers top room with the dead insects relate in some way to Ireland? explain
Blood and the Moon 133 -35
Blood and the Moon 133 -35
Yeats's poetic muse or model for the "poem's tower", was actually 16th-Century Norman castle in the Barony of Kiltartan, Ireland. Yeats credits this place for the poem's setting. I suppose the insects are part of this setting. The moth/butterfly motif perhaps referring to the achievements of Ireland being unable to flourish, hence trapped at the top of the tower.