¶ … Poetry of William Butler Yeats [...] theme of Ireland in Yeats poetry and show in several poems how this one theme is developed and changed over time. Poems discussed are "To Ireland in the Coming Times," "Down at the Salley Gardens," "No Second Troy," "When you are Old," "At Galway Races," "Red Hanrahan's Song about Ireland," "The Falling of the Leaves," and "The Two Trees." William Butler Yeats was a famous Irish poet whose love for his homeland is evident in his works. This love changed and matured as Yeats himself matured, but he never lost the affection he felt for his homeland, or the ability to communicate that love to his readers.
Themes in William Butler Yeats Poetry
William Butler Yeats was a prolific writer, penning both plays and numerous poems. His poems encompass many themes, but none more enduring than his love for his homeland of Ireland, and to understand Yeats love of his home country, one must understand Ireland as well. Ireland is a beautiful, wild, untamed country, and it was even more so when Yeats was writing. The population is fiercely independent, and they did not enjoy their subjugation to Great Britain, which is one of the topics Yeats hints at in his poetry. In Yeats' time, the Irish population was still largely engaged in agriculture, and so they lived simple lives in the country, far removed from the worries of the cities. Yeats wanted people to understand his Ireland, and to give the Irish people a voice they could understand and love. He succeeded on all counts.
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865, and spent much of his summer vacations in the west of Ireland in County Sligo with relatives. Much of Yeats poetry is set in western Ireland, such as "At Galway Races" and "Red Hanrahan's Song about Ireland." Much of Yeats early poetry concerns the mythology and folk tales of Ireland, which fascinated the young man. Early in his writing career, "Yeats and his friends established the Irish Literary Society, whose members had as their object the appreciation and critical study of...
Yeats justification of contemporary Irish Nationalism by creating a myth of the Irish past: The use of magic, myth and folklore in the poetry of W.B. Yeats, specifically in his book "The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems." Although the poetry of the Irish W.B. Yeats is largely known today for the writer's espousal of a spare, harsh modernism, in his early 20th century poetry, Yeats' tone in verse also had a
Thus, at the end of the poem, Yeats uses words to suggest that Leda has made a full transformation from weak women to one with a sexual assertiveness that can only be described as a shudder and a power that is greater than Zeus's. Through this suggestion, Yeats also points out that women are different than the Greek's conception of them in the myth. Instead of being weak, his
In all of these poems Yeats brings these fantastic worlds into such clarity -- both visually and emotionally -- for the reader that they feel swept away for the time they are reading. "Who Goes with Fergus" is exceptional in its ability to transport the reader into Yeats' world especially considering its brevity. Finally, the poem that is most poignant in placing the Romantic movement is "The Wilde Swans at
At this point, the emerging women's movement during the 1960s provided Rich with the ratification she needed. The movement articulated the very feelings of conflict she was experiencing on a personal, sexual and cultural level. This also allowed her to participate in a dialogue with her environment via the platform developed by the social movements arising during this time. Whereas her first poetry was therefore formal and unemotional, both her
The final lyrics in this poem divert back to the young girl that has stolen Yeats attention away from politics. The line reads "But O. that I were young again/and held her in my arms!(Yeats)" This line is significant in that Yeats seemingly asserts that although there is a certain fascination with politics, to a young man winning the affections of a girl is too much of a distraction and
Strength in Themes of Modernist Poetry Things fall apart, the center cannot hold," wrote Yeats of the modern, human condition. Yeats later poetic vision highlights a central notion in much of modern poetic philosophy, namely that the old ideological and religious structures have begun to unravel in modern life. What ideologies that once held up the human form and human social norms are no more, in the face of modern
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