The Spirit Medium
Poetry, music, I have loved, and yet Because of those new dead That come into my soul and escape Confusion of the bed, Or those begotten or unbegotten Perning in a band, I bend my body to the spade Or grope with a dirty hand. Or those begotten or unbegotten, For I would not recall Some that being unbegotten Are not individual, But copy some one action, Moulding it of dust or sand, I bend my body to the spade Or grope with a dirty hand. An old ghost's thoughts are lightning, To follow is to die; Poetry and music I have banished, But the stupidity Of root, shoot, blossom or clay Makes no demand. I bend my body to the spade Or grope with a dirty hand.
The Spirit Medium - meaning Summary
Art Displaced by Labor
Yeats presents a speaker torn between love of poetry and music and a need to reject insincere or derivative inspirations—"new dead"—that invade the soul. To avoid being shaped by copied or impersonal forces, the speaker abandons artistic pursuit and embraces manual labor: bending to the spade and groping with a dirty hand. The repeated physical image signals renunciation of aesthetic illusion in favor of grounding, honest work.
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