The title alludes to the Book of Genesis, evoking the fall of man and the separation of work and pleasure.
Ostensibly collaborating with one another, the first, second, and third stanzas are linked by an informal slant-rhyme scheme (e.g., "summer's end | clergymen | thereupon"; "trade enough | name of love"; "yet we'd grown | hollow moon").
These, in turn, are fulfilled through enjambment, and bleed into the first line of the second stanza (i.e. "The martyrs call the world.
Yeats serves as arbiter for his profession, condemning the view that beauty in art (and, subsequently, everywhere else) comes naturally.
Pitting himself with the "martyrs", the poet speaks through a victim's perspective and provides evidence to support his claim.