William Butler Yeats
Analysis of Stanza 5 and 6
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part 60
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
Amidst all of this change, the stone, (as first presented in stanza four), is a symbol of consistency as it does not move from its position on the bottom of the stream. In line 57-58, Yeats expresses the heart in a transformation, becoming consistent like the stone. "Too long a sacrifice"(57) in regards to war, has caused the heart to become a stone, bringing detrimental effects upon the hearts of all men. When this occurs, the responsibility the world must take is to love each corrupted soul, calling each by name "as a mother names her child when sleep has come"(63). However, sleep is a metaphor for death and these men die in result of their inability to change among the changing events around them.
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