No Second Troy

“No Second Troy,” by William Butler Yeats, was first published as part of the 1910 collection Green Helmet and Other Poems. Composed after decades of Yeats’s unrequited love for Maud Gonne, “No Second Troy” evokes the mythological Trojan War and the figure of Helen of Troy to depict love as a battlefield. Its form demonstrates the tension between Yeats’s early, traditionally structured poetry and his later, more experimental poetry, which grew freer in style as he aged. This tension between formality and free expression makes the poem a cornerstone of Yeats’s progression as a poet.

William Butler Yeats is a key figure both in Irish culture and literary Modernism. Older than most poets associated with the Modernist movement, Yeats’s constant experiments in style and form allow his poetry to speak across generations. Yeats received the 1923 Nobel prize in literature largely for his poetry and his involvement with the Abbey Theatre. Yeats’s theatrical works are still influential, but he is best remembered for his innovative poetry.

Poet Biography

William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland on June 13, 1865. Yeats’s father, John Butler Yeats, was an aspiring lawyer who later pursued art at Heatherley School of Fine Art.