ARE YOU CONTENT I call on those that call me son, Grandson, or great-grandson, On uncles, aunts, great-uncles or great-aunts To judge what I have done. Have I, that put it into words Spoilt what old loins have sent? Eyes spiritualised by death can judge, I cannot, but I am not content. He that in Sligo at Drumcliff Set up the old stone Cross, That red-headed rector in County Down A good man on a horse, Sandymount Corbets, that notable man Old William Pollexfen, The smuggler Middleton, Butlers far back, Half legendary men. Infirm and aged I might stay In some good company, I who have always hated work, Smiling at the sea, Or demonstrate in my own life What Robert Browning meant By an old hunter talking with Gods; But I am not content. -- William Butler Yeats' melancholy poem "Are You Content" was first published in the "London Mercury," April 1938. Mentioned therein: The Reverend John Yeats, (1774-1846), the poet's great-grandfather and Rector of Drumcliff Church, Co. Sligo. The Reverend William Butler Yeats, (1806-62), poet's grandfather, rector of Tullyish, near Portadown. The Reverend married Jane Grace Corbet (1811-76) in 1835; her brother Robert Corbet (d. 1872) lived at Sandymount Castle on the outskirts of Dublin with his mother, Grace Armstrong Corbet, (1774-1864), and his aunt, Jane Armstrong Clendenin. William Pollexfen (1811-92), Yeat's maternal grandfather, a shipowner and merchant. William Middleton (ca. 1770-1832), Yeat's maternal great-grandfather, a shipowner, merchant, and possibly smuggler. In 1773 Benjamin Yeats (1750-95), Yeat's great-great-grandfather, married Mary Butler (1751-1834), who was connected with the Irish Ormondes, the Butler family of great wealth and power that had settled in Ireland in the 12th century. He also refers to the great English poet Robert Browning (1812-89) and his poem, "Pauline," in which he describes "an old hunter/Talking with gods." Excerpts, "The Yeats Reader," R. J. Finneran