The Island of Statues by W B Yeats

Title's significance

[CONTEXT] The 'Island of Statues' hasn't appeared yet in Act I, but the title promises transformation—living beings becoming stone. Naschina's rejection of these men foreshadows this literal petrification.

THE ISLAND OF STATUES.

An Arcadian Faery Tale—In Two Acts.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Naschina,

Shepherdess.

Colin,

Shepherd.

Thernot,

Shepherd.

Almintor,

A Hunter.

Antonio,

His Page.

Enchantress of the Island.

And a company of the Sleepers of the Isle.

ACT I.

Scene I.

Before the cottage of Naschina. It is morning; and away in the depth of the heaven the moon is fading.

Yeats's stage direction

The opening stage direction emphasizes the moon 'fading' as morning comes. This isn't just scenery—it's symbolic. The play moves from night (dreams, romance, poetry) toward day (reality, action, disenchantment).

Enter Thernot with a lute.

Thernot. Maiden, come forth: the woods keep watch for thee;

Within the drowsy blossom hangs the bee;

'Tis morn: thy sheep are wandering down the vale—

'Tis morn: like old men's eyes the stars are pale,

And thro' the odorous air love-dreams are winging—

'Tis morn, and from the dew-drench'd wood I've sped

To welcome thee, Naschina, with sweet singing.

[Sitting on a tree-stem, he begins to tune his lute.

Enter Colin, abstractedly.

Colin. Come forth: the morn is fair; as from the pyre

Classical comparisons

Colin stacks three mythological references (Dido, Clytemnestra, Oenone) to describe daffodils. This is excessive decoration for flowers—Yeats is deliberately showing off early Romantic excess before the poem's real action begins.

Of sad Queen Dido shone the lapping fire

Unto the wanderers' ships, or as day fills

The brazen sky, so blaze the daffodils;

As Argive Clytemnestra saw out-burn

The flagrant signal of her lord's return,

Afar, clear-shining on the herald hills,

In vale and dell so blaze the daffodils;

As when upon her cloud-o'er-muffled steep

Œnone saw the fires of Troia leap,

And laugh'd, so, so along the bubbling rills

In lemon-tinted lines, so blaze the daffodils.

Come forth, come forth, my music flows for thee,

A quenchless grieving of love melody.

[Raises his lute.

Thernot. [Sings] Now her sheep all browsing meet

By the singing waters' edge,

Tread and tread their cloven feet

On the ruddy river sedge,

For the dawn the foliage fingereth,

And the waves are leaping white,

She alone, my lady, lingereth

While the world is roll'd in light.

Colin. Shepherd, to mar the morning hast thou come?

Hear me, and, shepherd, hearing me, grow dumb.

[Sings] Where is the owl that lately flew

Flickering under the white moonshine?

She sleeps with owlets two and two,

Sleepily close her round bright eyne;

O'er her nest the lights are blending:

Come thou, come, and to this string—

Though my love-sick heart is rending,

Not a sad note will I sing.

Thernot. I am not dumb: I'd sooner silent wait

Within the fold to hear the creaking gate—

[Sings] The wood and the valley and sea

Awaken, awaken to new-born lustre;

A new day's troop of wasp and bee

Hang on the side of the round grape-cluster;

Blenching on high the dull stars sicken

Morn-bewildered, and the cup

Of the tarn where young waves quicken

Hurls their swooning lustre up.

Colin. I'll silence this dull singer—

Competing love songs

Notice the structural pattern: Colin sings, Thernot sings louder, Colin responds. This isn't dialogue—it's a musical duel. The form mirrors the content: two men literally trying to out-sing each other for Naschina's attention.

[Sings] Oh, more dark thy gleaming hair is

Than the peeping pansy's face,

And thine eyes more bright than faery's,

Dancing in some moony place,

And thy neck's a poisèd lily;

See, I tell thy beauties o'er,

As within a cellar chilly

Some old miser tells his store;

And thy memory I keep,

Till all else is empty chaff,

Till I laugh when others weep,

Weeping when all others laugh.

Thernot. I'll quench his singing with loud song—

[Sings wildly] Come forth, for in a thousand bowers

Blossoms open dewy lips;

Over the lake the water-flowers

Drift and float like silver ships;

Ever ringing, ringing, ringing,

With unfaltering persistence,

Hundred-throated morn is singing,

Joy and love are one existence.

Colin. [Sings] Lone, and wanting thee, I weep;

Contradictory love logic

Colin claims 'Love and sorrow, one existence' while Thernot insists 'Joy and love are one existence.' They're singing opposite philosophies at the same woman. The play exposes how both shepherds are performing rather than feeling.

Love and sorrow, one existence,

Sadness, soul of joy most deep,

Is the burthen and persistence

Of the songs that never sleep.

Love from heaven came of yore

As a token and a sign,

Singing o'er and o'er and o'er

Of his death and change malign.

Thernot. With fiery song I'll drown yon puny voice.

[Leaping to his feet.

[Sings] Passeth the moon with her sickle of light,

Slowly, slowly fadeth she,

Weary of reaping the barren night

And the desolate shuddering sea.

Colin. [Sings] Loud for thee the morning crieth,

And my soul in waiting dieth,

Ever dieth, dieth, dieth.

Repetition as emptiness

In the rapid-fire song exchange, lines shrink to fragments: 'Dieth, dieth, dieth' and 'ringing, ringing.' The repetition creates emotional exhaustion rather than intensity—words losing meaning through overuse.

Thernot. [Sings] Far the morning vapours shatter,

As the leaves in autumn scatter.

Colin. [Sings] In the heart of the dawn the rivers are singing,

Over them crimson vapours winging.

Thernot. [Sings] All the world is ringing, ringing;

All the world is singing, singing.

Colin. [Sings] Lift my soul from rayless night—

Thernot. [Sings] Stricken all the night is past—

Colin. [Sings] Music of my soul and light—

Thernot. [Sings] Back the shadows creep aghast—

[They approach one another, while singing, with angry gestures.

Naschina's isolation

She enters alone, speaks alone, and exits alone. Unlike the shepherds and hunter who come in pairs or groups, she has no companion. Her alienation from Arcadian society is structural, not just emotional.

Enter Naschina.

Naschina. Oh, cease your singing! wild and shrill and loud,

On my poor brain your busy tumults crowd.

Colin. I fain had been the first of singing things

To welcome thee, when o'er the owlet's wings

And troubled eyes came morning's first-born glow;

But yonder thing, yon idle noise, yon crow,

Yon shepherd——

Thernot.Came your spirit to beguile

With singing sweet as e'er round lake-lulled isle

Sing summer waves. But yonder shepherd vile,

All clamour-clothed——

Colin.Was 't clamour when I sung,

Whom men have named Arcadia's sweetest tongue.

[A horn sounds.

A horn! some troop of robbers winding goes

Along the wood with subtle tread and bended bows.

[An arrow passes above.

Fly!

Thernot. Fly!

[Colin and Thernot go.

Naschina. So these brave shepherds both are gone;

Cowardice exposed

Both shepherds flee immediately at the sound of a horn, abandoning their love declarations. Naschina's sarcastic response ('Courageous miracles!') is the turning point—she stops believing in their performances.

Courageous miracles!

Enter Almintor and Antonio, talking together.

Almintor.The sunlight shone

Upon his wings. Thro' yonder green abyss

I sent an arrow.

Antonio.And I saw you miss;

And far away the heron sails, I wis.

Almintor. Nay, nay, I miss'd him not; his days

Of flight are done.

[Seeing Naschina, and bowing low.

Antonio's mimicry

The page repeats Almintor's compliments word-for-word, mocking them. This suggests even the hunter knows his own language is hollow performance. The play is self-aware about its own artificiality.

Most fair of all who graze

Their sheep in Arcady, Naschina, hail!

Naschina, hail!

Antonio. [Mimicking him] Most fair of all who graze

Antonio's mimicry

The page repeats Almintor's compliments word-for-word, mocking them. This suggests even the hunter knows his own language is hollow performance. The play is self-aware about its own artificiality.

Their sheep in Arcady, Naschina, hail!

Naschina, hail!

Almintor.I'd drive thy woolly sheep,

If so I might, along a dewy vale,

Where all night long the heavens weep and weep,

Dreaming in their soft odour-laden sleep;

Where all night long the lonely moon, the white

Sad Lady of the deep, pours down her light;

And 'mong the stunted ash-trees' drooping rings,

All flame-like gushing from the hollow stones,

By day and night a lonely fountain sings,

Fountain as symbol

Almintor describes a fountain that 'moans' and 'sings to its own heart.' The fountain's self-absorption mirrors the shepherds' self-centered love songs—they're singing to themselves, not to Naschina.

And there to its own heart for ever moans.

Naschina. I'd be alone.

Almintor.We two, by that pale fount,

Unmindful of its woes, would twine a wreath

As fair as any that on Ida's mount

Hunter's flowery language

Almintor uses the same mythological, ornate style as Colin (references to Ida's mount, Paris, Oenone). Yeats shows that ALL the men in Arcadia speak in this decorative way—it's the linguistic norm, not genuine emotion.

Long ere an arrow whizzed or sword left sheath

The shepherd Paris for Oenone made,

Singing of arms and battles some old stave,

As lies dark water in a murmurous glade,

Dreaming the live-long summer in the shade,

Dreaming of flashing flight and of the plumèd wave.

Antonio. Naschina, wherefore are your eyes so bright

With tears?

Naschina. I weary of ye. There is none

Of all on whom Arcadian suns have shone

Sustains his soul in courage or in might.

Poor race of leafy Arcady, your love

To prove what can ye do? What things above

Sheep-guiding, or the bringing some strange bird,

Or some small beast most wonderfully furr'd,

Or sad sea-shells where little echoes sit?

Shepherd vs. hunter divide

Colin and Thernot are shepherds; Almintor is a hunter. Yet Naschina dismisses both types equally. The play suggests all Arcadian male roles—pastoral or martial—are equally inadequate.

Such quests as these, I trow, need little wit.

Antonio. And the great grey lynx's skin!

Naschina.In sooth, methinks

Archaic language choice

Yeats uses 'trow' (think/believe), 'methinks,' 'wis' (know), and 'naught.' This deliberate archaism creates distance—we're watching a performance of an old story, not inhabiting it naturally.

That I myself could shoot a great grey lynx.

[Naschina turns to go.

Almintor.Oh stay, Naschina, stay!

Naschina. Here, where men know the gracious woodland joys,

Fear as love's brother

Naschina repeats this phrase twice in quick succession. She's not being poetic—she's making a logical argument: Arcadia breeds fear alongside joy, which means love here is compromised. Safety equals mediocrity.

Joy's brother, Fear, dwells ever in each breast—

Joy's brother, Fear, lurks in each leafy way.

I weary of your songs and hunter's toys.

To prove his love a knight with lance in rest

Naschina's demands

She explicitly rejects Arcadian pastoral life and wants 'a knight with lance in rest' and 'enchanter old'—she's asking for medieval romance, not pastoral poetry. She's rejecting the entire genre the play is set in.

Will circle round the world upon a quest,

Until afar appear the gleaming dragon-scales:

From morn the twain until the evening pales

Will struggle. Or he'll seek enchanter old,

Who sits in lonely splendour, mail'd in gold,

And they will war, 'mid wondrous elfin-sights:

Such may I love. The shuddering forest lights

Of green Arcadia do not hide, I trow,

Such men, such hearts. But, uncouth hunter, thou

Know'st naught of this.

Exit as judgment

Naschina exits twice in this scene, each time after dismissing a male character. Her departures structure the scene more than the men's actions do. She controls the play's pacing through refusal.

[She goes.

Antonio.And, uncouth hunter, now——

Almintor. Ay, boy.

Antonio.Let's see if that same heron's dead.

[The boy runs out, followed slowly by Almintor.