W.B. Yeats' "Meru"

This poem seems to represent an exploration of anarchist theory. Of course, this is not the wanton violence or destruction, nor the disguised dictatorships, which seem to come to mind when one considers the nature of "anarchy." Rather, it is a more "natural" and poetic meditation on anarchy. To paraphrase the American historian Howard Zinn, those things that we fear most of anarchy (namely, violence, death, destruction, upheaval, etc.) have ben brought about not by any "anarchist" group, but rather by the imperial nation states of the modern world. Poets and artists alike have long noticed that the so-called "order" that is protected so dearly by civilization is merely a guise by which certain functions of human nature (greed, violence) may be furthered by the subjugation of others. Thus, Yeats laments the notion of civilization "...brought /Under a rule, under the semblance of peace..." This civilization has failed in its promises of peace, of its destruction of suffering. Humanity, still unable to escape a life, "Where but to think is to be full of sorrow," raves and rages through the centuries, never surrendering the ideal of immortality or peace. Meanwhile, the pursuit of that ideal further extends the reach of the so-called "civilization, and thus furthers the suffering and alienation of modern humanity. Yeats goes on to ponder the existence of hermits. Setting them upon Meru, the "center of the world," Yeats places them closer to the elemental, the "desolation of reality," into which both man and civilization inevitably plunge. They are living in the present with its constant necessities, and are not focused on the "monuments" of peace that will pass "before dawn." However, Yeats does not seem to praise these "hermits." they instead seem beyond praise, they simply are. Any monument of glory or praise to their lives will pass, as will the snow that "beat down upon their naked bodies."