No Second Troy : Summary
No Second Troy is a notable literary work by William Butler Yeats. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of No Second Troy.
Summary
In this poem, the poet criticizes his beloved Maud Gonne and compares her to Helen of Troy. We know that the city of Troy was reduced to ruins because of just a woman, Helen.
So he warned everyone that the same situation should not happen again in present-day Ireland. His beloved was extremely beautiful and the poet was madly in love with her. On the other hand, she was a popular politician in Ireland too. So, even if the poet is in love with her, he can cope with it even if he feels pained to think that she doesn’t care.
But he expresses doubts and criticizes his lover whether the situation in Ireland is worsened by the way his lover is stirring up and angering the people of Ireland. Because of the harshness that Maud Gonne showed to the poet, he does not want his lover to do the same for his motherland.
And from this concept he named the poem No Second Troy. That is, he does not want any state to be like the city of Troy again.