The Fascination of What’s Difficult

The fascination of what’s difficult
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart. There’s something ails our colt
That must, as if it had not holy blood,
Nor on an Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud,
Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt
As though it dragged road metal. My curse on plays
That have to be set up in fifty ways,
On the day’s war with every knave and dolt,
Theatre business, management of men.
I swear before the dawn comes around again
I’ll find the stable and pull out the bolt.

-William Yeats

I know I promised to include an analysis of each poem, but I am still getting my head round this one and perhaps more importantly, I think it’s a poem that is so open to interpretation that I don’t even need to weigh in with my opinion, especially because “difficulty” is such a subjective concept. I find math so very hard to do, yet I have friends who would rather do math equations than read a book.

E.r.r.r.r.r.rrrrrrrr how???

Photo credit: Judith Geher, ‘Lion Hearted’. Absolutely stunning art. Found it at http://www.aphrochic.com. See http://aphrochic.blogspot.com/2013/06/original-art-judith-geher.html