Poem: Affidavit

One of my favorite poems is "No Second Troy" by W.B. Yeats. The amount of ground he covers in this 12-line poem is breathtaking and his use of sound, syntax, and imagery is unparalleled. Here is the original Yeats poem and one I wrote in response.

No Second Troy
W.B. Yeats

WHY should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

-

Affidavit

I confess I craved a second Troy to burn.
Not for the tyranny or maritime seduction
or the heroes that arise when they recognize
duty as passion, but simply to know
Beauty commands. For why else would women
court clostridium but for the basilisk gaze
to hold reason enthralled, drive waterfalls off cliffs?
Little do they know my misery, the temptation I rein,
that I learned something from those little streets:
Nobility is not free will, and responsibility leashes
my splendor from destroying your jury of weakness.