The Style and Content of William Butler Yeats

Abstract: W.B.Yeats has certainly not suffered lack of critical attention, but the Yeats-Nietzsche connection has not been dealt with fully. Yeats’s later work can, more accurately be read and understood in the light of Nietzsche’s role in the development of Yeats’s thought. Yeats’s connection with Nietzsche is not simply a matter of literary influence; both of them are united by a common philosophic temperament and way of understanding the world. This paper is an attempt to study the influence that Nietzsche had upon Yeats, and what made it possible: the underlying kinship of a similar disposition.

The timeless essence and the ambivalence in Yeats’ poems urge the reader’s response to relevant themes in society today. This enduring power of Yeats’ poetry, influenced by the Mystic and pagan influences is embedded within the textual integrity drawn from poetic techniques and structure when discussing relevant contextual concerns.

The work of William Butler Yeats is full of descriptive, evocative imagery, deep personal feelings and strong political opinions. Yeats sets up dynamic contrasts in every one of his poems which for me makes his poetry interesting and thought-provoking. I found these traits particularly evident in “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” as Yeats discusses a variety of poems, prose and plays written by himself throughout his life. These works of art represent the full breadth of Yeats’ work - The themes of life, death immortality and of conflicting dualities. Bloom (1970) proposes the theory that Yeats shares with the Romantic poets “a conviction that the most poetic images are necessarily those of ‘unfulfilled and unfillable desire” and according to Bloom Yeats shares with Shelley his deepest fear of growing old and losing his ability to write beautiful meaningful poetry and to be immortalised through his work. This genuine self-doubt in his ability is particularly evident in this poem. The resignation and fear is implicit in the concluding rhyming couplet in each stanza.,

William Butler Yeats is one of the most esteemed poets in 20th century literature and is well known for his Irish poetry. While Yeats was born in Ireland, he spent most of his adolescent years in London with his family. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he later moved back to Ireland. He attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and joined the Theosophical Society soon after moving back. He was surrounded by Irish influences most of his life, but it was his commitment to those influences and his heritage that truly affected his poetry. William Butler Yeats’s poetry exemplifies how an author’s Irish identity can help create and influence his work.

In the first stanza Yeats expresses his conflicting loathing and admiration for modernity through the juxtaposition of “vivid faces” and “grey houses”. This represents the possibilities that modernity can bring; the revitalising of the community or the destruction of tradition and age old energy already lost by the modifications in the city. The repetition of the phrase “A terrible beauty is born” in the first and fourth stanzas articulate this inner turmoil revolving around modernity. This oxymoronic declaration is emphasised throughout the text by Yeats’ confusion towards the rebellion and its necessity. The fourth stanza embodies this conflict, removing the previously represented idea that life in pre-rebellion Ireland was a “casual comedy”, alluding to an Elizabethan play where the characters were content. By asking the rhetoric questions “was it needless death” and “O when may [British rule] suffice?” Yeats parallels the unresolved contradiction of “terrible beauty”. However, this sensitive treatment of conflict allows the retainment of ambiguity and can be related to any change within life, hence allowing audiences to superimpose their own beliefs and ideas into the poem. Yeats continues to explore his aversion towards modernism in The Second Coming with the appointment of a new “gyre” standing as the symbol for a new age. The fear of

What light does this comment of Yeats’ shed on his poetry? Feel free in your answer to concentrate on poetic devices other than rhythm if you prefer.

The speaker in Yeats’s’ “When You Are Old” is utterly captivated by the woman he depicts as being old in the poem. His amorous attitude toward her is unchanging, yet afflictive because he cannot get her to understand his undying love for her. Furthermore, these feelings are gracefully portrayed through dreamy imagery, a bittersweet tone, a gentle quatrain form, and soft diction.

Yeats was a confessional poet - that is to say, that he wrote his poetry directly from his own experiences. He was an idealist, with a purpose. This was to create Art for his own people - the Irish. But in so doing, he experienced considerable frustration and disillusionment. The tension between this ideal, and the reality is the basis of much of his writing. One central theme of his earlier poetry is the contrast

Young Yeats spent much of his childhood in Sligo, Ireland. It was in Sligo where his earliest visions began to form. Through the Pollexfen’s, William was able to experience life on the water, as his grandfather owned a fleet of ships and the Sligo Steam Navigation Company. As the grandson of this sea merchant, the sailors onboard the fleets, as well as the servants back at home, would all treat young William like royalty. The Pollexfen’s world was complete with yachts and summer homes. Despite separation from his father for much of his youth, William was without want. He was free to wander about to discover the beauties, and explore the myths and legends of this enchanted place. William would miss Sligo immensely when this family would move

Both poems are sonnets that focus on early death; however, each poet displays different emotions for life and death in their poems. On the one hand, Keats displays an optimistic view of life, but is contemptuous towards death since it will mark an unwanted end to his artistic, romantic, and countless other endeavors. On the other, Longfellow distrusts life and fears death. As an indicator of these contrasting sentiments, the poets not only use significantly different types of poems, but they also differ in their rhetorical devices’ purposes in the shared iambic pentameter structure. In particular, they use imagery, diction, mechanical devices and metaphors in varying extents and purposes.

John Keats was a well established English poet in the early 19th century. His work is greatly influenced by his family, studies, political views, and life experiences. Keats was born October 31st, 1795 in a stable to his devoted parents, Thomas and Frances Keats (15). Before Keats’s twentieth birthday he would experience many hardships from the passing of both of his parents as well as his grandmother. Thomas Keats died in 1804 after an accident occurred while riding his horse, leaving John Keats as the ‘man’ of the house at the young age of nine. Less than five years passed before Frances Keats fell ill and passed after contracting tuberculosis. At a young age Keats experienced great loss and suffering that would linger with him for the entirety

John Keats was a poet who saw nature as being exhilarating and beautiful. He often drew comparisons between nature and poetry to express his thoughts. In his poems “Bright Star” and “When I have fears,” John Keats uses alliteration and personification to express his emotions towards mortality. In “Bright Star,” he uses these devices to express his desire to be eternal and permanent by comparing them to a star. Similarly, in “When I have Fears,” he uses them to capture his fear of dying before accomplishing greatness in writing and romance. In both poems, he uses alliteration to overcome his fears by realizing the unimportance of eternity and fame. Thus, by using the same poetic devices, he ultimately expresses his fear of the inevitable death

The twenty-four old romantic poet John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” written in the spring of 1819 was one of his last of six odes. That he ever wrote for he died of tuberculosis a year later. Although, his time as a poet was short he was an essential part of The Romantic period (1789-1832). His groundbreaking poetry created a paradigm shift in the way poetry was composed and comprehended. Indeed, the Romantic period provided a shift from reason to belief in the senses and intuition. “Keats’s poem is able to address some of the most common assumptions and valorizations in the study of Romantic poetry, such as the opposition between “organic culture” and the alienation of modernity”. (O’Rourke, 53) The irony of Keats’s Urn is he likens

William Butler Yeats was not a man to keep quiet about his passions. He expresses his need for more than just reality throughout his poems, longing for the youthful desires of his heart. Yeats often talks about escaping reality and shifting to a realm of fantasy in which his deepest thoughts are brought forth. He reveals his unrequited love through the visionary elements in his poems. His use of sensory detail in each of the poems increases the fantastical notion of the poems. Yeats longs for the things he can no longer attain, such as love and youth. Two poems that display his youthful desires are “The Song of Wandering Aengus” and “The Wild Swans at Coole.”

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, a dramatist, and a prose writer - one of the greatest English-language poets of the twentieth century. (Yeats 1) His early poetry and drama acquired ideas from Irish fable and arcane study. (Eiermann 1) Yeats used the themes of nationalism, freedom from oppression, social division, and unity when writing about his country. Yeats, an Irish nationalist, used the three poems, “To Ireland in the Coming Times,” “September 1913” and “Easter 1916” which revealed an expression of his feelings about the War of Irish Independence through theme, mood and figurative language.