W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats

1. The Lake Isle of Innisfree

   • setting=nature. personal poem. metaphorical journey of the mind and soul (imagination can create the ideal. Use of repetition to create elevated, musical expression of longing
   • I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
     • ceremony, serious, old-fashioned style makes the poem very hard to date thereby giving it a certain timelessness
   • bee-loud glade
     • use of sound provides a vivid image of the natural beauty. Ear hears only beautiful sounds
   • There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
     • Eye sees only beautiful sights. Vivid image of the Heather plants reflected in the calm water
   • I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore
     • onomatopoeia, alliteration. Evocation of the sound of lake water.
   • And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
     • While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
       • desire to be elsewhere. Relatable: everyone needs a place of peace even if it only exists in the locked room of our minds
     • Beautiful, tranquil

2. The Wild Swans at Coole

   • romantic image but autumn mood matches Yeats' mood. Tireless continuity of life
   • The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry,
     • Beauty and sadness of Autumn. Rhythm is slow, mood is meditative
   • Upon the brimming water among the stones Are nine-and-fifty swans.
     • Prompt an emotional response within the reader as one is left without a mate. Possible reference to Yeats' own struggles withlove
   • The nineteenth autumn has come upon me Since I first made my count
     • unhappy affair with Maud Gonne. The passing of time has brought increasing sorrow. Aware of his mortality?
   • And now my heart is sore. All's changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore,
     • Remembering the good times when the "bell-beat of their wings" caused him to trod with a lighter tread and his heart to lift
   • Delight men's eyes when I awake some day To find they have flown away?
     • Yeats is left with a heavier heart as he imagines the men the swans will continue to delight and the love they will continue to share

3. September 1913

   • personal opinion to public audience. Simple and straightforward. He is disappointed with the present and compares it with the past
   • And add the halfpence to the pence And prayer to shivering prayer
     • profound disillusionment, scathing/ironic. The people of the present day are without dignity or beauty. Money=Power
   • For men were born to pray and save
     • Ironic: he does not believe men should simply save money and pray for their souls
   • Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave.
     • Repetition: lack of energy and fiery optimism that Ireland was known for. Bitter, dismissive tone. Anger
   • Yet they were of a different kind, The names that stilled your childish play
     • Those heroes were selfless and reckless and Yeats regrets their passing
   • For this Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, All that delirium of the brave?
     • The naming of names gives the poem an energy and authenticity. "For this" indicates Yeats' disappointment and disillusionment
   • They weighed so lightly what they gave. But let them be, they’re dead and gone, They’re with O’Leary in the grave.
     • Ireland's Romantic Visionaries were selfless and giving, they did not view their lives in a calculating manner. Yeats' bitter, angry tone has given way to acceptance

4. Easter 1916

   • Takes back his denunciation of the Irish middle-class,he admits that he misjudged them.
   • I have met them at close of day Coming with vivid faces
     • the backdrop of the everyday society is grey but the faces of the rebels are animated, "vivid" showing passion and enthusiasm for a cause.
   • polite meaningless words
     • Repeated to capture the distance between him and them and to portray himself and his companions "at the club" in an honest, bad light
   • All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.
     • powerful, paradoxical image captures Yeats' conflicting emotions
   • REBELS who were given anonymous "Vivid" faces in stanza one are now given qualities and attributes
     • "Ignorant good-will" = well-intentioned but uninformed nature of Countess Markiewicz
     • John MacBride
       • A drunken, vain-glorious lout. He had done most bitter wrong To some who are near my heart,
         • Married to Yeats' unrequited love, Maud Gonne, but had hurt her deeply resulting in divorce
   • He, too, has been changed in his turn, Transformed utterly
     • The complex "terrible beauty" transformed the rebels
   • Hearts...Enchanted to a stone To trouble the living stream.
     • Stone hearts=resistance, persistence. Symbolize individuals choked by hatred. Stream=those who dies are permanent presences in the constant flow of time
   • And what if excess of love Bewildered them till they died?
     • Asks the question on everyone's mind, Were they so single-minded that they couldn't see passed their love for their country?
   • Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.
     • Once again taking back his accusations of "September 1913" and praising the actions of the tragic heroes

5. Sailing to Byzantium

   • Yeats withdraws from the world and explores more personal themes. This is a stately, graceful journey of the mind and soul to an ancient and beautiful place Praising and celebrating the importance of art.
   • That is no country for old men.
     • rejects Ireland. He is no longer at ease in his birthplace
   • Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
     • The youth are unaware of their mortality but they will grow old too
   • An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick
     • Looks at himself in a negative light. Paints a grim self image which explains his longing to escape this imperfect world and enter an immortal one
   • Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
     • The soul defies its ageing, mortal body. Repetition gives the simple, childlike, spontaneous, delightful image momentum
   • be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away
     • Having now made the journey to Byzantium (a journey of the imagination) Yeats' soul/heart can bask in the beauty of art. Contrasts heart and soul, body and spirit
   • Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing...to sing To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
     • Rejects the natural world, conjures up an elegant civilisation in his mind

6. An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

   • Writing as Major Robert Gregory who died in action in 1918 allows Yeats to speak with foresight. There is a determined, certain tone and a feeling of the inevitable
   • I know that I shall meet my fate
     • The poem begins with a sense of urgency. He seems to be confronting his destiny which he feels was doomed from the onset (TITLE)
   • Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love
     • He does not hate the Germans, he does not love the British. The mention of "Kiltartan Cross" creates an image of an unassuming, sympathetic man.
   • No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before.
     • The people whom he cares about will be unaffected by the outcome. "My country", "My countrymen" = emphasis on himself shows his true commitment
   • A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds
     • presents us with the haunting Romantic explanation, not "law", "duty", "public men", but a "lonely impulse". Was this done on a whim out of love for his cause (like the rebels in Easter 1916)
   • In balance with this life, this death.
     • calculated, clear, understanding tone. The choice was an impulse but it was a balanced decision. Showing Gregory's final moment and the futility of life