A Full Moon in March - W.B. Yeats

Summary

W.B. Yeats' 'A Full Moon in March' is a one-act verse play steeped in symbolism, exploring themes of ritualistic sacrifice, spiritual transformation, and the perilous nature of beauty and passion. The plot centers on a Queen who has vowed to marry any man who can sing a song that pleases her, under the condition that if he fails, he will be beheaded. A filthy Swineherd, driven by an inexplicable urge, comes before her. Despite his lowly appearance, his song captivates the Queen, yet she orders his execution. Following his beheading, the Queen performs a macabre, ritualistic dance with his severed head, symbolizing a mystical union and the triumph of the spirit over earthly form, suggesting a transcendence achieved through violent sacrifice and aesthetic passion.

Book Sections

Section

The play opens in the Queen's palace, setting a scene of ancient, ritualistic formality. The Queen, surrounded by her Attendants, awaits a challenger. Her decree is known: any man who wishes to marry her must sing a song that pleases her. If he fails, he will be beheaded. The atmosphere is tense, charged with a sense of impending fate.

Character	Characteristics	Motivations
The Queen	Regal, beautiful, stern, enigmatic, driven by a desire for a love that transcends the ordinary, perhaps an artistic or spiritual perfection. She is both a figure of power and a seeker of profound, almost dangerous, beauty.	Her primary motivation is a quest for a spiritual or aesthetic union, symbolized by the challenge she sets for her suitors. She seeks a love that fulfills a deep, almost mystical need, even if it means violence and sacrifice. Her actions suggest a desire to escape the mundane and achieve a form of transcendent experience. She is motivated by a cold, almost cruel, pursuit of an ideal.
The Swineherd	Filthy, unkempt, lowly, yet possesses an inner fire and an inexplicable spiritual intensity. He is depicted as a figure of raw, untamed nature, yet also a vessel for profound artistic expression.	He is driven by an inexplicable, almost fated, compulsion to face the Queen and sing for her, despite the almost certain death. His motivation is not worldly ambition but a deep, irrational urge to express his truth, his song, to the Queen, perhaps embodying the artist's compulsion to create regardless of consequence, or a fated role in a ritualistic drama. He seeks a form of recognition or release through his song.
Attendants	Loyal, observant, somewhat fearful, serving as witnesses to the Queen's decrees and the unfolding drama.	Their primary motivation is to serve the Queen and uphold her traditions and decrees. They represent the passive observers of the ritual.

A Swineherd, ragged and covered in the muck of his trade, enters. His appearance is repulsive, a stark contrast to the Queen's refined beauty. The Attendants are disgusted and try to drive him away, but the Swineherd insists on his right to sing for the Queen, as per her decree. He proclaims that he has travelled a long distance, compelled by an irresistible force to come before her. The Queen, initially disdainful, is nonetheless intrigued by his audacity and the strange light in his eyes.

The Swineherd begins to sing. His song is simple but powerful, speaking of a yearning heart, a profound connection to the earth, and an almost sacred love. Despite the coarseness of his voice and his unkempt appearance, his song manages to stir something within the Queen. She is visibly moved, perhaps even troubled, by the raw truth and passion embedded in his melody. The song is not one of courtly love but of an elemental, almost barbaric, desire and devotion.

Despite being profoundly affected by his song, and arguably "pleased" in a deeper, more spiritual sense, the Queen orders his execution. The decision is swift and chilling, seemingly defying logic. The Attendants carry out the order, and the Swineherd is beheaded offstage. This act reinforces the play's ritualistic nature, where conventional morality is superseded by a symbolic purpose.

The severed head of the Swineherd is brought back onto the stage. The Queen approaches it with a mixture of reverence and awe. In the play's climax, she takes the head and begins to dance. This dance is not one of triumph or sorrow in the ordinary sense, but a ritualistic, almost ecstatic movement. She dances with the head as if it were a lover, celebrating a grotesque yet profound union. The dance symbolizes the transcendence of physical boundaries, the fusion of spirit and flesh through violent sacrifice, and the achievement of an ultimate, dangerous beauty. The full moon in the title hints at the completion of this dark, cyclical ritual, a moment of heightened mystical power and transformation.

Genre

Verse Play, Symbolic Drama, Tragedy, Mythological Drama

Author Facts

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and co-founded the Abbey Theatre. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." Yeats's work often drew on Irish mythology and folklore, and later in his career, he developed a unique mystical system. He experimented with various forms, including plays for dancers, heavily influenced by Japanese Noh theatre, which 'A Full Moon in March' exemplifies.

Morale

The play offers a complex and often unsettling "morale" or message, rather than a straightforward ethical lesson. It delves into:

• The transformative power of sacrifice: It suggests that profound spiritual or artistic transformation can arise from violent, ritualistic acts.
• The paradox of beauty and truth: True beauty and artistic expression (represented by the Swineherd's song) can be found in unexpected, even repulsive, forms and often demand extreme sacrifice.
• The union of opposites: The play explores the fusion of the base (Swineherd) and the noble (Queen), the physical and the spiritual, the grotesque and the beautiful, suggesting that transcendence lies in embracing these paradoxes.
• The artist's struggle: It can be interpreted as an allegory for the artist's struggle to create, where the act of creation can be both consuming and deadly, yet ultimately leads to a form of immortality or spiritual release.
• The cyclical nature of myth and ritual: The story taps into ancient patterns of fertility rituals and divine sacrifice, highlighting the timeless human quest for meaning beyond the mundane.

Curiosities

• Influence of Noh Theatre: 'A Full Moon in March' is one of Yeats's "plays for dancers," deeply influenced by the Japanese Noh theatre, which he discovered through Ezra Pound. These plays feature stylized movement, masks, symbolic language, and a minimalist stage setting, focusing on mood and spiritual resonance over realistic plot.
• Companion Play: This play is a companion piece to 'The King of the Great Clock Tower' (1934), both of which explore the theme of a queen dancing with a severed head. Yeats considered them two versions of the same core myth.
• Mythological Roots: The play draws loosely on various mythological and folkloric motifs, including the story of Salome dancing for the head of John the Baptist, and ancient fertility cults involving sacrifice and ritualistic dances. Yeats blended these influences with his own esoteric system.
• Symbolism of the Swineherd: The Swineherd, despite his low social status, represents a pure, uncorrupted, almost divine artistic spirit or primordial force. His song is a raw expression of truth that transcends social norms.
• The Full Moon: The full moon is a recurring symbol in Yeats's work, often associated with madness, passion, completion, and mystical power. In this play, it signifies the culmination of the ritual and a moment of intense, almost supernatural, energy.
• Rehearsal Challenges: These highly stylized plays were notoriously difficult to stage and often puzzled contemporary audiences, who were more accustomed to realistic drama. Yeats was more interested in their symbolic power and ritualistic effect than commercial success.