Fragments
faith
doubt
lyric poem
dreamlike
I Locke sank into a swoon; The Garden died; God took the spinning-jenny Out of his side. II Where got I that truth? Out of a medium's mouth. Out of nothing it came, Out of the forest loam, Out of dark night where lay The crowns of Nineveh.
Fragments - meaning Summary
From Reason to Mysticism
Yeats compresses a shift from Enlightenment confidence to occult revelation. The first fragment evokes the failure of reason and progress—Locke’s swoon, the Garden’s death, God removing the machine of industry. The second asserts a contrary source of knowledge: a medium, the forest loam, and the ruins of Nineveh. The poem contrasts rationalist collapse with a mystical, buried origin for truth and cultural memory.
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