W.B Yeats Essay
Write an essay in which you give your reasons for liking/not liking the poetry of W.B Yeats. Support your points by reference to or quotation from, the poems that are on your course.
In my opinion and from the sample of his poetry which I have studied, I would say that the poetry of W.B Yeats is very enjoyable to read. The themes of his poems are often easily identified with and his simple style of writing makes his poetry easy to interpret and understand. Although easily engaging with the themes of his poetry contributes to my liking of Yeats’ poetry, it is his gift of writing that has an impact on me. His use of powerful contrasts and breath-taking imagery easily make Yeats one of the greatest poets of the twentieth
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There is a strong contrast in this poem between the old, weary, lonely poet and the apparently ever-youthful, energetic and powerful swans. Yeats’ journey to Byzantium in “Sailing to Byzantium” is due to the fact that he wishes to become immortal, to flee the dreaded progression of ageing. He rejects Ireland as it is “no country for old men” and criticizes those who get too caught up in the wonders of life and who have no concerns about growing old “Caught in that sensual music all neglect, Monuments of unageing intellect”. The poet claims that one, namely, “an aged man”, can only break free from the spell of ageing if he is allow his spirit to break free “A tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing and louder sing”. Yeats obviously wants to bypass old age and become immortal in this poem and begs the “sages” to allow him to break away from his body, “a dying animal”, and to gather him “into the artifice of eternity”. In both “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “Sailing to Byzantium, a strong contrast is made. However, in “The Wild Swans at Coole”, Yeats merely seems envious of the youthful swans, in contrast to “Sailing to Byzantium” where he seems angry with the young who appear to waste their youthfulness. I found this theme very thought-provoking and therefore an entertaining theme to read about.
A final theme which appeared in the poetry of Yeats which I studied was that of historical events. This theme appears in “September 1913” and
Prompt: In a brief essay, identify at least two of the implications implicit in the society reflected in the poem. Support your statements by specific references to the poem.
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.
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
intellectual and imaginative climate,” perhaps a “spirit of an age”,” (Greenblatt, 8th ed. 6). As this quote displays, the Romantic period of literature held a closely associated atmosphere with the time. Four ideas, impulse of feeling, glorification of the ordinary, the supernatural, and individualism or alienation all serve as readily available examples of themes which display the atmosphere discussed by this quote. Out of all of these themes, glorification of the ordinary serves as the main focus of Keats’s poem “Why Did I Laugh Tonight? No Voice Will Tell”.
I) He begins the poem with a feeling a majority of people experience in order to make people feel sad about true love getting away A) William Butler Yeats uses certain words and phrases. B) to get a point across. C)
Thomas Keats and Frances Jennings gave birth to the infamous John Keats on 31 October 1795 at his grandfather’s stable in London, United Kingdom.(“Keats, John (1795-1821).”) In early adolescence, Keat’s father had encountered an accident while riding which led to his death when John was a measly 8 year old. As for John’s mother, she deceased when he was 14 years old due to the tragic disease tuberculosis.(“Keats, John (1795-1821).”) John was succeeded by two younger brothers, George and Tom and also a younger sister named Fanny. John and his brother’s George and their younger brother attended John Clarke’s school at Enfield where John was embedded with guidance, encouragement and a strong friendship from his teacher, Charles Cowden
Yeats's childhood was broad in education and personal experiences. Yeats became a youth full of emotional contradictions. Spiritually, educationally,
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.”
“In Memory of W.B Yeats” is an elegy to the poet who had influenced Auden’s writing style.The poem is split into three sections,each with a different form and interpretation on the impact of poetry on society. Throughout the three sections of the poem Auden uses an extended metaphor likening poetry to nature, since Yeats is known for his affiliation to nature.
John Keats has many memorable and distinct poems. He is well known for his ability to write and adored by many. Ode on Indolence is a poem that can be relatable to its readers due to its idea of how indolence interferes with life’s opportunities, in particular the three mentioned in the poem, love, ambition and poesy. Keats refers to these three figures as “ghosts” (51) therefore insinuating that they once lived, but now they are mere figments of energy and air.
Yeats’ elegy, details a metaphoric spiritual journey of renewal to “the holy city” seeking intellectual refuge within an “artifice of eternity” (Yeats, Lines 16,24). His use of figurative language elicits both the somber and nostalgic tones evident throughout the poem. Metaphorically, the speaker emphasizes the theme of obsolescence by alluding to his own physical limitations and concern for his own mortality living in a “country” unfit for “old men” among
William Butler Yeats, was a poet from the Victorian age. Philosophers say that Yeats was one of the greatest poets of all time, “William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century”(Adams). One of Yeats most famous poem was Sailing to Byzantium. In the poem Sailing, Yeats expresses three very important messages. The messages that Yeats expresses in Sailing are, that the soul wants to leave body when it's about time to go, the elders are more wise, and that younger generation doesn't listen to their elders.
A poet is not always aware of all the sources that influence his poetry. Various experiences and fields of knowledge that he is familiar with, play upon his mind and form a new compound which hardly bears any resemblance to the original sources. A reader who feels that he has been able to trace the source is required to ascertain that the poet was in fact exposed to that source. An Indian critic or reader with his knowledge of and sympathy for Indian culture is more likely to be able to feel the Indian echoes. But he must look for support in Yeats’s autobiography or perhaps his biography, his letters or other writing. That Yeats was not only familiar but well versed with Indian philosophy is clearly proved by his letters and essays. Therefore
The importance of this poem to this reading is also seen in the fact that it betrays the political ideals that Yeats had: the poem implicates the speaker as being a senator. It is in after 1924 that Yeats served as a senator. This makes the poem sound like a poem which was penned down after the civil war, given that it is written from the standpoint of a more peaceful and politically stable Ireland. Thus, the poem is also instrumental as it lets the reader in into Yeats’ political orientation and leanings. Thus, the many qualities Yeats had and the many fields he operated in, in terms of career are well confirmed by this poem.
William Butler Yeats was considered to be one of the most important symbolists of the 20th Century. Believed to have been influenced by the French symbolist movement of the 19th Century, his poems incorporated symbols as a means of representing mystical, dream-like and abstract ideals. This was especially prevalent towards the latter part of his life when, inspired by his wife Georgiana Hyde-Lees, he developed a symbolic system which theorized movements through major cycles of history in his book A Vision (1925, 1937)[1]. “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “The Second Coming” are poems of Yeats’ which incorporate symbols, and will be discussed in this essay.