Monologue

Andrew Monologue from The Land of Heart's Desire

From The Land of Heart's Desire by W.B. Yeats

male · contemplative · 2:13 min

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Martin says truth, and he says it well. Planing the side of a cart or a shaft, is that life? It is not. Sitting at a desk writing letters to the man that wants a coach, or to the man that won’t pay for the one he has got, is that life, I ask you? Thomas arguing at you and putting you down—‘Andrew, dear Andrew, did you put the tyre on that wheel yet?’ Is that life? Not, it is not. I ask you all, what do you remember when you are dead? It’s the sweet cup in the corner of the widow’s drinking-house that you remember. Ha, ha, listen to that shouting! That is what the lads in the village will remember to the last day they live. (MARTIN: Why are they shouting? What have you told them?) Never you mind; you left that to me. You bade me to lift their hearts and I did lift them. There is not one among them but will have his head like a blazing tar-barrel before morning. What did your friend the beggar say? The juice of the grey barley, he said. (FATHER JOHN: You accursed villain! You have made them drunk!) Not at all, but lifting them to the stars. That is what Martin bade me to do, and there is no one can say I did not do it. [A shout at door, and beggars push in a barrel. They cry, ‘Hi! for the noble master!’ and point at ANDREW.

About this piece

Andrew reflects on the meaning of life and the memories that linger after death, expressing discontent with mundane existence while contrasting it with the vibrant memories of youth and community.

30s · melancholy · life · death · isolation · memory

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