Meru

Of all the poems that we've read this year, I liked this one the most.  I think because to me it really hit on what humanity is and does.  "man's life is thought,/And he, despite his terror, cannot cease/ Ravening through century after century."  I think what Yeats says, in a much more eloquent way, is that despite the fact that humanity is pretty aware of the damage it does onto itself, "Egypt and Greece, good-bye, and good-bye, Rome!" it continues along its destructive path.  Of course he could just be mentioning history but I'd like to think that what he is saying one of two things: 1) we have yet to learn from the mistakes made in the past that caused the "Ravening, raging, and uprooting" or 2) we have yet to appreciate the past.  Either way, the last few lines of the poem bring in the image of a forgotten destination.  Bringing in Mount Meru gives the poem a religious aspect and so the snow that covers the mountains and naked bodies through night and day shows that the final destination of humanity has been forgotten.  Maybe I'm completely off here, but thats what I thought.