The Circus Animals' Desertion Essay Questions

"The Circus Animals' Desertion" works in relationship to a great deal of Yeats' other works. Pick several of Yeats' other works and explain why "The Circus Animals' Desertion" relates to them or alters their meaning.

Many of Yeats' poems take on whimsical or mythological aspects, lauding the mysteries of the fertile landscapes of the heart and mind. This can be seen in his poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," in which he describes the "deep heart's core"—a description that directly contradicts the shallow, ruined territory of the "foul rag and bone shop of the heart" that appears in "The Circus Animals' Desertion."

Other poems, like "The Song of Wandering Aengus," also display a fascination with the natural, the earthly, and the unearthly, whereas "The Circus Animals' Desertion" displays a much greater disillusionment with realms of magic and fancy, which come to seem farcical when viewed through its more jaded, reserved lens.

"The Circus Animals' Desertion" is more similar in theme to some of Yeats' later poems, including "Sailing to Byzantium." It shares this poem's structure—iambic pentameter, or ABABCC—and contains the same sort of dread that defines "The Second Coming," though it is a more intimate, internal portrayal of the devastations of modernity, whereas "The Second Coming" takes on a more global, apocalyptic viewpoint.

Overall, "The Circus Animals' Desertion" contains many of the themes that define Yeats' work (performativity, nuanced references to mythology, a contradiction between the romantic and the disillusioned) but serves as a much more internal, much more complacent and fearless examination of the author's own heart and mind when it has been stripped of all the trappings of myth and fantasy.

Analyze and explore the phrase "foul rag and bone shop of the heart." What might it mean? Does any potential exist in this place? How does "The Circus Animals' Desertion" rhetorically and metaphorically explore it?

At the end of Yeats' poem, after he has traversed and denounced all of his previous literary endeavors and dreams of grandeur, he winds up at what seems to be the very core of who he is: this "foul rag and bone shop of the heart." Rag-and-bone shops were common in England and Ireland at the time. They were junk stores that resold old or unwanted objects usually labeled as disposable.

Yeats uses visceral description of the detritus of modernity to explore this place, which contrasts with the whimsical mythologies he has previously discussed (though it also resembles them, in that they were likely all constructed within this rag-and-bone shop). He describes old objects scattered on a street, as well as a "raving slut" who "tends a till"; these descriptions describe overused things, having been wasted by lack of care or by the simple ravages of time.

The rag-and-bone shop has a womb-like quality, as it is the origin point of all the other myths; it also resembles death, and Yeats evokes this connection by saying that he must "lie down" within it. And yet it is a humble place too, without the grandeur of a heaven and without the potential of the womb; it's everything and nothing at once.

Despite his denunciation of metaphor, Yeats pulls off a complex, elegant metaphorical trick with this phrase (which also, unfortunately, is used today as the name of a very overpriced clothing store, probably much to the disdain of Yeats' ghost).

Explore the theme of the circus in Yeats' poems and other works concerning the carnivalesque, the performative, and/or the theatrical. Why does Yeats associate his poetic inspiration with a circus? What might the circus mean, what has it historically symbolized, and why is this significant?

"The Circus Animals' Desertion" is fascinated with the theatrical but also with the fact that all performances are really constructions and illusions, and after all curtains close, everyone must go home to themselves.

In the poem, the poet reflects on the fact that he has been putting on shows, tricking audience members for much of his creative career. The circus has historically represented a place where great freedom and possibility could occur and where social conventions loosen, but only under the cover of night; what happened there was never allowed to become truly real during the day, just as the fantasies of the theater and poetry exist as long as the curtain is raised, but always end. Similarly, within the poet's past creations, there was freedom and magic, but at the end of the poem, the circus animals have all gone away, and it is time to face reality.

How does "The Circus Animals' Desertion" resemble and differ from both romantic and modernist literary canons?

Yeats is commonly understood to be a poet whose work bridges the divide between romanticism and modernism. His work contains both the fanciful, nature-revering, occult-entertaining characteristics of Romantics like William Blake as well as the disillusionment and fragmentation of modernist writers like T. S. Eliot.

But some scholars also believe that his work moves beyond even the modernist tradition, edging into the territory of the early postmodern, especially in poems like "The Circus Animals' Desertion," which comments on itself and its own lack of meaning in a typically postmodern fashion.

If modernism believes in the power of reason and language, postmodernism has little faith in either of these things, instead expressing disillusionment with almost everything—much like "The Circus Animals' Desertion."

Is "The Circus Animals' Desertion" an entirely hopeless, negative poem? Explain why from both rhetorical and symbolic perspectives.

It seems like "The Circus Animals' Desertion" is a truly devastating look at what aging does to people, and this can certainly be argued.

But rhetorically, the poem expresses pride in the poet's past creations, using myth and rich language to describe his achievements, even though he is having trouble coming up with new ideas.

It is also possible to argue that this poem is a place where the poet actually comes to terms with himself and who he really is, abandoning great illusions for a clear-eyed look at the truth.

When he settles down at the "foul rag and bone shop of the heart," perhaps he is abandoning illusion—but perhaps for once he is also expressing solidarity with those who do not have access to the great fantasies and majesties that he valued above all else. Not everyone has access to education or to the intellectualism and cultural understanding Yeats valued so deeply; by at last letting down his great fantasies, he is coming to terms with reality and settling upon solid ground—a foundation where perhaps something real can begin to grow.