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 seemingly more important than politics. This line can also be a refection of Yeats life. It is as if he is looking back in hindsight and acknowledging that when he was younger he had an interest in politics and studying political systems but did not pursue this interest because of the aforementioned distraction.
Indeed, Yeats often expressed his political beliefs through poems that were also about love. Such was the case with a poem entitled No Second Troy. It is believed that he wrote this particularly poem after the love of his life Maud Gonne married another man. The poem is as follows
WHY should I blame her that she filled my days/With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,/or hurled the little streets upon the great, / Had they but courage equal to desire?/What could have made her peaceful with a mind/That nobleness made simple as a fire, With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind/That is not natural in an age like this, Being high and solitary and most stern?/Why, what could she have done being what she is?/Was there another Troy for her to burn?(Yeats)"
No Second Troy is part of the collection known as the middle poems. The middle poems are those poems written and published during the middle of a poet's career. For Yeats the middle poems were the fourteen years between 1900 and the Great War of 1914 (Bloom). This means that Yeats was between the ages of thirty six and fifty. According to Bloom the poem No Second Troy had Yeats equating Maud Gonne with Deirdre, Helen of Troy, and Cathleen ni Houlihan (Bloom).
This particular poem is said to equate Maud Gonne with politics itself. In the first two lines the poet writes "WHY should I blame her that she filled my days/With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,/or hurled the little streets upon the great,(Yeats)" Yeats assertion that "she" filled his days with misery is reflecting his disdain for the love he lost and the political situation or the "politics" that were present at the time. In this portion of the poem Yeats asserts that Gonne (Politics) had been teaching "ignorant men most violent ways." The ignorant men being referred to is believed to be the Irish Nationalists who chose insurrection over other non-violent forms of politicking which was unacceptable to Yeats. The next line which speaks of hurling little streets upon the great is referring to the Irish nationalist as the "little streets" and the British Empire as the "Great."
Indeed this insurrection pitted the weak against the strong and proved to be problematic as was witnessed at the time and continues to be evident in the 21st century.
The next section of the poem discusses the beauty of Maud's stature and her mind. Yeats asked what could have made her peaceful. As if to suggest that her condoning the violent actions of political factions of the time could have been fixed or somehow managed. Yeats also suggests that Maud Gonnes Politics and beliefs could be likened to Helen of Troy and the burning of Troy.
However, Yeats asserts that there is no second Troy.
An essay entitled "Yeats and Maud Gonne: (Auto)biographical and Artistic Intersection" asserts that the relationship between the two was "a politically charged and mystically coded relationship (Khan)." Several historians have noted that it is this relationship that became the source of many of Yeats' poems even into old age. Yeats and Gonne shared different political views and in many cases these differences led to frustration for Yeats.
Some of his poems such as Easter, 1916 which commemorates the Irish uprising, show his disdain for violent politics (Khan).
The first stanza of the poem is as follows have met them at close of day/Coming with vivid faces/From counter or desk among grey/Eighteenth-century houses./I have passed with a nod of the head/or polite meaningless words,/or have lingered awhile and said/Polite meaningless words,/and thought before I had done/of a mocking tale or a gibe/to please a companion/Around the fire at the club,/Being certain that they and I/but lived where motley is worn:/All changed, changed utterly/a terrible beauty is born (Yeats).
Yeats' "The Stolen Child" An Analysis of the Temptation to Flee Reality in Yeats' "The Stolen Child" Yeats' "The Stolen Child" depicts a world in which fantasy and reality are in contention with one another. The conflict is between the sense of reality (barely perceptible and inundated by a flood of dreamlike perceptions) and the flight of fantasy. A parallel might be drawn between the poem and the social problem of addiction.
From there, the speaker addresses the sages and asks that they teach him to sing. In other words, he is tired of the life that he has on this earth, and he wants to give up his earthly form and move on to what comes next. He feels that he is still fastened to something (his body) that is dying, and he wants to set free his soul and move
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
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
W.B. Yeats and Eavan Boland While William Butler Yeats and Eavan Boland may be united by a common nationality and literary heritage, they are divided by almost a full century. Eavan Boland, as an Irish poet living after Yeats, has certainly been indebted to his influence. Ignoring such a debt would indeed be impossible, and Boland herself has even admitted to the importance of Yeats' Irishness to her: There were great and
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
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now