Lines 1-23 Summary

Lines 1-4

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.

• Yeats starts the poem off by talking about some people whom he's met at the "close of day" or the end of the business day (probably 5pm-ish). These folks are probably happy to be off work, so they come with "vivid faces" from wherever they work, whether it's behind a "desk" or "counter" at a store among some grey old houses. 
• As you can imagine, Yeats the fancy-pants poet sort of thinks he's above these common people who work regular jobs. If Yeats is ever going to sit behind a desk, it's going to be on his own terms as a poet.
• At this point, we're still not totally sure what Yeats' title means for this poem. All we know is that he tends to run into people he knows (or more likely, people who know him) at the end of the business day in Dublin. Not much to go on so far.

Lines 5-8

I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,

• Here, Yeats takes his snobbery up a notch and mentions how he's passed these people with a mere "nod of the head" or maybe some "polite meaningless words." You know, like when someone asks you how you're doing, but you know they don't really care about the answer. 
• Just to make sure we're on the same page as him, Yeats repeats the phrase "polite meaningless words" in line 8 to show that he doesn't care about the majority of his run-ins with these people.
• The repetition of the phrase "polite meaningless words" also helps us realize just how much Yeats finds his interactions with people repetitive (and probably boring). But hey, at least the guy has the good will to "linger awhile" with some of these people.
• You know, because he's such a nice dude. 
• At this point, it's also worthwhile to note that Yeats' diction isn't all that fancy compared to some of the stuff he usually writes.
• There's nothing really all that poetic about what he's saying in these opening lines, just like there's nothing poetic about the boring conversations he's talking about.

Lines 9-12

And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,

• While he's talking to these people, Yeats will sometimes think of a funny story or "mocking tale" that he can tell that will make people happy around the fireplace at a nearby club or "bar." You know, if he's feeling really generous, he'll tell people a funny story. But his communication with these people stays totally superficial. 
• You can kind of tell how superficial his conversations are by how little "poetry" there really is in these lines. Sure, the guy is still writing things in a nice, flowy way. But if you were looking for themes to analyze in this first stanza, Yeats isn't giving you all that much. All you can really say so far is, "Yup, he finds most of his social interactions pretty meaningless."
• One thing that does happen in these lines, though, is that Yeats' diction starts to get even folksier than it is in the beginning lines. We're thinking this might be ironic on Yeats' part, as he is starting to use silly sounding words to help show how unimportant these interactions are to him. Who in the world calls a funny story a "mocking tale" or "gibe"? This isn't just language from Yeats' time. It's intentionally silly.