Please help me understand a poem by W. B. Yeats

A re-rendering of the two lines might be:

In luck or out the toil has left its mark:

Whether you are fortunate or unfortunate there will be negative consequences of what you do. Those are:

That old perplexity an empty purse

The long-standing problem of not having any money. (Perplexity means entanglement or obstacle here, not confusion.)

Note that the last line is closely related to the next-to-last, and gives the alternative negative consequence.


Yates introduces the choice between "Perfection of the life" and "the work."

Lines 6 says "toil has left its mark," so if you choose a life of toil ("the work") you will be scarred by it.

Line 7 says "That old perplexity an empty purse." Even as you choose the life of toil you may have nothing to show for it but "an empty purse." And that is perplexing.