The Fool by the Roadside
version of The Hero, The Girl And The Fool
When all works that have From cradle run to grave From grave to cradle run instead; When thoughts that a fool Has wound upon a spool Are but loose thread, are but loose thread; When cradle and spool are past And I mere shade at last Coagulate of stuff Transparent like the wind, I think that I may find A faithful love, a faithful love.
The Fool by the Roadside - meaning Summary
Identity, Fate, and Longing
Yeats’s short lyric reflects on life as a cycle of work and thought that ultimately unravels and loses meaning. The speaker imagines human actions and a fool’s spun thoughts reduced to “loose thread,” then envisages personal dissolution into a transparent shade. In that diminished, almost posthumous state he hopes to find a simple, faithful love that endures beyond identity and earthly contrivance.
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