Library Question #4
 

Below are 4 drafts of the poem, "After Long Silence," by William Butler Yeats. Compare the four drafts, examining their variants from draft to draft and discussing the implications of the various changes for the final version of the poem.

After Long Silence

[Draft 1]

Your hair is white
My hair is white
Come let us talk of love
What other theme do we know
When we were young
We were in love with one another
And therefore ignorant
 

[Draft 2]

Your  Those other lover being dead & gone
on love descant
Upon the sole theme supreme theme of art &
Wherein there's theme so fitting for the aged.
We loved each other & were ignorant.
 

[Draft 3]

Her Un friendly lamplight hidden by its shade
And shutters clapped against the deepening night
the candle hidden by its friendly shade
Those curtains drawn upon the deepening night
That we descant & yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of art & song--
Bodily decreptitude is wisdom--young.
 

[Final MS Version]

Speech after long silence; it is right--
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
The curtain's drawn upon unfriendly night--
That we descant & yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of art & song,
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom--young
We loved each other and were ignorant.