William Butler Yeat's Poems

TOPIC OF THE BLOG:-

This blog is a part of a thinking activity given by Dilip Barad Sir from the paper name 'The 20th century literature:- 1900 to World War II. In this blog I tried to describe poems written by WB Yeats and also try to connect with other elements and movements.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS:-

William Butler Yeats was born on June 13, 1865 in Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland and died on January 28, 1939 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. He is one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. He was an Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. He was the founder of  'Abbey Theatre'. Yeats’s father, John Butler Yeats, was a barrister who eventually became a portrait painter. His mother, formerly Susan Pollexfen, was the daughter of a prosperous merchant in Sligo, in western Ireland. Through both parents he claimed kinship with various Anglo-Irish Protestant families who are mentioned in his work. (Britannica).

NOTABLE WORKS:-

•  A Vision
• At the Hawk’s Well
• Cathleen ni Houlihan
• Easter 1916
• Four Plays for Dancers
• Leda and the Swan
• Sailing to Byzantium
• The Celtic Twilight
• The Countess Cathleen
• The Green Helmet
• The Herne’s Egg
• The Second Coming
• The Tower
• The Wanderings of Oisin
• On being asked for a War Poem

YEATS POEMS:-

🌬️ SECOND COMING:-

Written by:- William Butler Yeats 

Written:- 1919 

Published:- 1920

Included:- Included in 1921 in his 'collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancers.'

Rhyming Scheme:- Blank verse 

🌈 Starting lines of the poem says as falcon flying up in the sky and Falcon is not able to hear the voice of Falconer and falconer now cannot control this bird like that the situation of now time is out of control and we cannot control that. We can connect Falcon as a human and falconer as a God. After every round or युग humans are going far from God. And now we are not able to hear his voice.

🌈Further in the poem he described that everywhere now only remaining is blood and people who are fighting with each other. There is a lack of innocent people and the people who are old and in poor health are full of passionate intensity.

spiritus mundi

🌈Further poet feels that now there should be some revelation and may be second birth of Jesus Christ is here. Second time Jesus Christ may be born in this world. At the same time the poet sees the vast image of spiritus mundi. 

🌈 Somewhere in the sand of the desert he sees the Sphinx. The image of the lion body and head of man. It has eyes like the pitiless sun and it's moving its thighs means from the desert it is rising and slowly came near with moving its thighs. The birds in the desert were afraid of this creature and started flying in the sky and the shadow of the birds were roaming around this creature. These are some other images of this beast.

🌈 Further poet says that after seeing this beast now everything is in darkness. But now he knows  that twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle. And how rough and dangerous this beast is. And now with slouch it's moving towards Bethlehem (birth place of Jesus Christ) for born? Here the poet's question marked the line that this is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ? 

For a better understanding of the poem this video might help you. 

🌬️ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM:-

Written by:- William Butler Yeats

Written:- 6 February, 1915 in response to request of Henry James.

Published:- 1916
Rhyming Scheme:- ABCABC

🌈 Starting of the poem presents that it is better to be silent in time like these means the time of war. This line is particularly written for the poets. He described that it is better to write nothing instead of writing about Wars and politics. Cause in the time of wars politicians grab the mind of people and wash their mind with the thought that everything is the truth said by politicians.

🌈We have no gift, here he talk about poets that poet have no gift that politician have about telling the lie is truth and to control people by it. 

🌈 He has enough of meddling ( unwanted interference) to please a girl in her youth and an old man upon a winter's night. 

🌈Here one can interpret so many talks that politicians have gift and talent to please girl and an old man. And secondly, he likes to write about girls and old men rather than politics and wars. 

🌈 Poet described his feelings that he don't want to write about politics and wars through writing the poem. 

🌬️ DEATH:-

Written by:- William Butler Yeats

Written:- 1929 - written as a response to the assassination of Irish political figure Kevin O’Higgins.

Published:- The poem "Death" was published in The Winding Stair and Other Poems in 1933.

Rhyming Scheme:- Unambiguous iambic trimeter (Marken) 

🌈 As dying animal has no hope or not even a thought about after life and not any regret. But a man waits for his death hoping that when he dies he will rise again. In these lines the poet says that humans have thoughts and hope for after lives and also hoping that he rises again every time he dies. 

🌈Animal dies one way, man another (Marken).

🌈 These lines reflects the idea of Shakespeare's thought from 'Julius Caesars' that 'Cowards die many times before deaths. The brave experience death only once.’

🌈In this poem death loses its significance. It is not threatening but becomes an object of mockery.

🌈 Further he poet says that a man has consolation before dying if he has any kind of aim. If man dies without aim his death is like an animal's death. 

🌈 Man created the death as one can find this line relevant with suicide, and sometimes man dies everyday without dying. 

🌈 Yeats calls to Olivia Shakespeare:-

''This country is exciting. I am told that  De Valera has said in private that within three years he will be torn in pieces. It reminds me of a saying by O'Higginis to his wife "Nobody can expect to live who has done what I have done." It is the cult of sacrifice planted in the nation by the executions of 1916." (Marken)

🌈One can compare this poem with the 'Essay of Death' by Francis Bacon.

🌈 For more information on this poem you can watch this video on YouTube.

OTHER SURREALISM PAINTINGS INSPIRED BY POEMS OF YEATS:-

🌬️A PRAYER FOR MY DAUGHTER:-

A 21st Century Depiction of a 1919 Yeats Poem

Description by painter:- This painting is my 21st Century version of the ending of W. B. Yeats' "A Prayer for My Daughter," 1919. (Combs)

🌬️COME AWAY O HUMAN CHILD:-

This painting is inspired by the William Butler Yeats poem 'Come away o human Child' and painted by Trudi Doyle. You can find other relatable and interesting images on surrealism and on poems by William Butler Yeats (Click here to visit this site Named Fine Art America).

WORKS CITED:-

🌞Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "William Butler Yeats". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Butler-Yeats.

🌞 Combs, Bruce. “A 21st Century Depiction of a 1919 Yeats Poem.” Fineartamerica, 13 Apr. 2012, fineartamerica.com/featured/a-21st-century-depiction-of-a-1919-yeats-poem-bruce-combs--reach-beyond.html. 

🌞 Marken, Ronald. “Yeats’s ‘Death’: A Reading.” Irish University Review, vol. 10, no. 2, 1980, pp. 244–50. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25477354.

NOTE:- If you find any problem or question or suggestions please let me know☺️.

Words:- 1279

Images:- 7

Paintings:- 5

Videos:- 3