The poem
Hands, do what you're bid: Bring the balloon of the mind That bellies and drags in the wind Into its narrow shed.
The Balloon Of The Mind
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- Gary McMahon226 words
It has been suggested that this is a poem about writing. The act of writing tames one's thoughts, similar to bringing a balloon home to a shed...I like this interpretation but it troubles me a little. "Narrow shed" seems to be constricting. I like the idea of writing taming a wild floating thing (I find writing to organize and clarify my thoughts), but I'd prefer another image, one without the negative connotations I find in "narrow shed."
This poem, as with all good poetry, relates to common experience, and suggests many examples. Yeats is saying that for the human race in general, there will always be a conflict between the unrestricted imagination and what is considered "practical". The realm of the practical is represented by the "hands" --like the idea of manual labor. The human psyche usually subdues the unruly but energetic imagination (as…
Read the whole commentThis poem, as with all good poetry, relates to common experience, and suggests many examples. Yeats is saying that for the human race in general, there will always be a conflict between the unrestricted imagination and what is considered "practical". The realm of the practical is represented by the "hands" --like the idea of manual labor. The human psyche usually subdues the unruly but energetic imagination (as found in many artists, or in true scientific minds) and strives to control it. This is often out of fear or the need to conform to some limited definition of human behavior. Most very young people have minds that expand ("to belly" means "to swell"), but along the way to growing up, they learn to keep their minds within "narrow" bounds. This is a difficult process and does not happen overnight. The balloon "drags", that is, resists, and only succumbs after great effort and pain. The "narrow shed" is Yeats' way of saying sometimes there is too much control; and that this dominance of the practical (and sometimes banal) is very limiting on human growth. I think he's saying that this tendency appears to be unstoppable and very sad. Let's hope that, in the long term, he's wrong about that. I hope that eventually humans in their evolution will learn to trust and value "the balloon of the mind."
Syvia Plath?
Why is the poem "The Balloon of the Mind" being attributed to Sylvia Plath? It was written by William Butler Yeats. Plath wrote "Balloons".