(13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939 / County Dublin / Ireland)

Previous Month February 2013 Next Month
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
28 29 30 31 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 1 2 3
Poem of the Day
Select a day from the calendar.
Would you like to see the poem of the day in your e-mail box every morning?
Your email address:
  Subscribe FREE
  Unsubscribe
What do you think this poem is about?

A Crazed Girl

THAT crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,

Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.

No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.'

Submitted: Tuesday, May 15, 2001


Read poems about / on: girl, poetry, music, beautiful, sea, lost, dance, wind

Comments about this poem (A Crazed Girl by William Butler Yeats )

Enter the verification code :

  • Babatunde Aremu (2/12/2013 6:45:00 AM)

    As it was in the begining so it is now. I hope our present artists we read this. They are weird

    2 person liked.
    7 person did not like.
  • Manonton Dalan (2/12/2013 4:31:00 AM)

    he must be describing modern artist
    of today it could be lady gaga

    3 person liked.
    6 person did not like.
  • Akanksha Bhatt (10/1/2012 11:10:00 PM)

    just one word! VOW! ! ! !

    3 person liked.
    12 person did not like.
  • Manonton Dalan (2/12/2012 3:32:00 AM)

    britney spears could outshine that crazed
    girl if it was happening today and honestly
    madonna is genius in music and entertainment.
    on last stanza could be describing famous janet
    kackson malfunction decades later.

    5 person liked.
    20 person did not like.
  • Ian Fraser (12/6/2010 8:29:00 PM)

    A typical romantic view of insanity as divine inspiration. The truly insane are not happy and their imitation of happiness merely serves to emphasise their misery. Yeats understands none of this.

    6 person liked.
    20 person did not like.
  • Sadiqullah Khan (2/15/2010 1:18:00 AM)

    The transcendental value
    Put upon the word crazed
    Otherwise the word insane
    Her sounds not commonly intelligible
    And one song she sings
    Is actually making her more free
    But fear still grips her of the hungry sea
    Which she transforms into a song improvising
    Insanity itself is freedom
    From the existing norms and codes
    Be that fate divine or bonds
    What are words become polemics
    When taken to the scene
    And where you make conclusions
    He has shown us a picture of a girl
    In a state of spectacular existence
    Now she will appear different
    Every one with own eye

    8 person liked.
    13 person did not like.
  • Herman Chiu (2/13/2010)

    I really wonder... is she the sea?
    Metaphor is incomparable.

    9 person liked.
    7 person did not like.
  • Gertrude Morris (2/12/2010 10:43:00 PM)

    poems from this Irish dreamer are all beautiful, if you haven't read more, you should

    9 person liked.
    6 person did not like.
  • Adam Reed (2/12/2010 12:08:00 PM)

    not to be a hater to Yeats but the rhymes were a little stale. perfect with the metaphors and still worthy of the rating. thats the only beef i have with this.

    4 person liked.
    8 person did not like.
  • Terence George Craddock (2/12/2010 11:38:00 AM)

    This is what Yeats said she is, A Grazed Girl, not a sprightly nymph dancing by the shores of a briny sea, she is a beautiful but tragic image of insanity.
    THAT crazed girl improvising her music.
    Her poetry, dancing upon the shore, And she is insane with the tune of her internal song. 'Her knee-cap broken'... reality check, it is broken, that is why like a puppet on a string; 'Climbing, falling' she dances on 'Her soul in division from itself... She knew not where, '. She is insane 'She stood in desperate music wound, Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph' because she dances on 'No matter what disaster occurred' it did not touch her, she made no 'No common intelligible sound But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.' and herein may lie a reason for her insanity.

    5 person liked.
    8 person did not like.
Read all 22 comments »
[Hata Bildir]