Position:Home>Poetry> Yeats' Never Give all the Heart?

Sptfyr's on the right track!.!.!.here is the poem so I can reference it specifically:

Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain,

If you give all your heart and she knows it, she won't have to think about it anymore, it will be a "given" because you've made it a certainty!.!.!.a fact, without any doubt!.!.!.and there will be no part of that heart they need to pay attention to, because they've already won all there is to win!. He's saying that passionate women are passionate "in order to win" your heart, because there is usually some part of it just out of reach and they use all their passion to get every last part of it!.!.!.unless you foolishly give it all up all at once!.

and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;

They don't understand that after many kisses the kisses fail to keep what the first kisses won!.!.!.as we guys sometimes say, "after 30 days, it's just reruns"!.!.!.and because they believe the heart completely theirs (you told them it was), they don't understand that it needs more than repetative maintenance!.

For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight!.

Beauty, like the first bloom of passion, is based on the transcience of its nature!.!.!.we treasure that which lasts the briefest time, as if the fact that it so quickly fades adds to its beauty, its attraction!.

O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play!.

Regardless of what women may say, they live for the hunt, for the "play", for the winning, not the keeping!.!.!.they say they want forever, but what they really want is forever chasing the illusive!.!.!.so if you give up the heart at the outset, they have nothing left to win!.!.!.and thus they lose interest!.

And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love!?

And if you would play the game with women, how could you do well if you are "deaf, dumb and blind" with love!.!.!.in other words, you need to keep your wits about you and restrain your admission of love so that you can see the game for what it really is and play it with any chance of staying your ground!.!.!.it's like a fighter who says the loser is the first boxer to get angry, because they lose focus and take every punch personally!.

He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost!.

Here the poet says he's speaking from experience!.!.!.because he gave his heart willingly and without reservation, and thus "lost" at the game!.

I hope that puts the old English into a more modern context!.!.!.especially from a "guy" perspective!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Yea, I get that he is saying you should not give all your heart in love because women will stay more interested if they think that love can fade which will also make them anticipate each kiss and make each kiss all the more passionate!. He seems to be making the assumption that since people tend to want what they can't have then withholding all his love will make the women love him all the more!. Basically, he is saying you should lead them on!. I also get that he is saying that giving all of your heart is dangerous and can leave you vulnerable!. It puts your heart out there to be toyed with!. However, if you're not blinded by love then your heart will be safe!. He knows because he's been there and done that!. "For he gave all his heart and lost!."

Hope this helped!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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