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Yeats

A study of selected poems by

W.B. Yeats


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List of Poems

Broken Dreams

The Cold Heaven

Easter 1916

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth...

Leda and the Swan Sailing to Byzantium

The Cat and the Moon

The Fisherman

The Man and the Echo

The Second Coming The Stolen Child

The Wild Swans at Coole

Among School Children

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death


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BROKEN DREAMS

Context:

1917: Yeats last proposal to Maud

Themes:

TimeDeath

Decay


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Form and Structure

The varied length of the stanzas illustrates Yeats feelings, the shift

of focus makes the poem feel very modern

The enjambment is used when Yeats looks back on the past, this

technique is used particularly when he is recalling Maud in her youth

and how beautiful she was


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Imagery

Decay/Time:

There is grey in your hairMauds beauty withered with time

But in the grave all, all, shall be renewed Maud was once

beautiful in her youth, Maud may have lost some of her appeal; but

Yeats looks forward to the afterlife when her former beauty will berestored (which is quite fickle). It seems here beauty is only in the

eye of the beholder

Beauty:

Burdensome beautybeauty here is seen as negative as it is like a

curse and with time beauty will only wither away You are more beautiful than any one/ And yet your body had a flaw /

Your small hands were not beautifuleven Maud has her faults

with makes her human like the rest of us and not angelic


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THE COLD HEAVEN

Context:

Yeats is wondering what life after death is like, and if Heaven existsand what that could be like etc

Yeats is confused; which is reflected in the vagueness of the poem

Themes:

Death

Crisis of Faith

Binary Opposites


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Form and Structure

The poem itself is romantic in style as it focuses on a spectrum ofdifferent emotions

Structure

Alexandrines: these are woven into free verse to reflect order andchaos (another binary opposite). The blending of the two reflect

Yeats confusion about the afterlife and what awaits him after he diesForm

Enjambment: used to represent stream-of-consciousness (Yeatsthoughts) this is typical of modern literature

E.g. Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven/ That

seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice, Line length: there is a rocking back and forth effect created by the

length of lines and by the number of accents which goes: 6, 7, 5, 6,6, 7, 5, 6, 7, 5, 6, 5.


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Imagery

Vanished and left but memories, that should be out of season/With thehot blood of youth..here Yeats is saying that youth should not beconcerned with death, hot blood of youth could suggest that theirinnocence can be seen as ignorance, maybe Yeats did some things inhis own youth that he feels was impulsive and foolish. In Sailing toByzantium Yeats similarly mocks the youth in the lines commend all

summer long/ Whatever is begotten, born and dies rook-delighting an omen of death; Yeats is not sure if the afterlife isa good or bad thing as it is uncertain what awaits him

Riddled with light-this is used to represent the body dying, finally weare coming to a climax in the poem

Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent-the spirit leaving the body

Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken/ By theinjustice of the skies for punishment?-the afterlife seems harsh, evenmore endurable than the process of the death itself. Yeats ends thepoem with a rhetorical question, as he does in Leda and the Swan andThe Second Coming, he doesnt provide us any answers instead weare left to make our own assumptions


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Oxymorons and Opposites

The title itself is an oxymoron as we associate Heaven to be warm

and friendly aspheric. Cold Heaven also contrasts Hell,

temperature wise

ice burnedas we know ice doesnt burn, Yeats is simply stating

that some opposites and relationships cannot work as they are sodifferent

rook-delighting heaven-a rook is a black bird: perhaps an omen of

death, a death-delighting heaven which is a very unlikely

combination when we think of the two


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EASTER 1916

Context:

Based on the Easter 1916 uprising in Ireland

Themes:

Politics

Death


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Historical Background

Cons tance Markievicz:A freedom fighter who dedicated her life toending British government in Ireland. With the new Irish government,Markieviczheld the position of Minister of Labour.

Patrick Pearse:An accomplished Irish writer who was editor of theGallic Leagues paper. He also founded the St. Endas School inDublin. Yeats refers to Pearse in Easter 1916 as the man who had

kept a school / and rode our winged horse (24-25). The wingedhorse represents Pegasus, a figure from Greek mythology the use ofthis image highlights Pearseslearned statehe almost, in Yeats mind,rises to take his place among the great Greek philosophers (seeAmong Schoolchildren for furtherYeatsian reflection on the value ofthe great Greeks)`

Thomas MacDonagh:He studied the Irish language and met Patrick

Pearse through his involvement with the Gallic League. He joined theteaching staff at PearsesSt. Ednas School. In addition to hisinvolvement in education and the fight for Irish independence,MacDonagh was also an Irish writer. Yeats asserts Pearse andMacDonaghs relationship by referring to MacDonagh as Pearseshelper and friend(26).

Information copied from www.aterriblebeautyisborn.com


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Historical Background

Major John Macbr ide:An Irish revolutionary and was married toMaud Gonne. He was predominately featured in Yeatspoetry. Although Yeats held particular bitterness against Macbrideas a man who had done most bitter wrong / to some who were nearmy heart(33-34), Yeats overcame these judgments (or at least

admits that a man in death may bear little resemblance to a man inlife

Maud Gonne:The inspiration for many ofYeatss early poems. Afeminist and actress she later moved on to try and release the Irishpolitical prisoners from jail during the Easter Rising.

James Connol ly :Joined the British army at the age offourteen. During the time he spent with the armed forces, Connollyeducated himself as well as developing his interest in bothNationalism and Socialism. In the Easter Rising rebellion, Connollywas Commander-General of the Dublin Brigade.

Information copied from www.aterriblebeautyisborn.com


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Form and Structure

Yeats varies between Iambic tetrameter and Iambic trimeter perhaps

to reflect the changes in Ireland and/or to show the coming of age

Ireland as it tries to seek its own identity

The rhyme scheme of the poem changes in ABAB


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Analysis

vivid facesthese faces lack description showing their

unimportance

A terrible beauty is bornthe people of Ireland coming together to

fight for independence; however Yeats expects that it will only end

up in bloodshed and death

ignorant good-will / Her night in argument / Until her voice grew

shrill painting Constance Markievicz in a negative light (just as he

does in In the memory of Eva Gore...), he thinks that she

manipulated good however uneducated supporters/people for her

own desires


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IN THE MEMORY OF EVA GORE-BOOTH AND CONSTANCEMARKIEWICZ

Context:

Based on two friends of Yeats, who he spent a lot of time with in hisyouth

In the poem Yeats looks back on the choices they made in life andcomments on them

Themes:

Time

Regret


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Form and Structure

The poem is made of 3 stanzas consisting of 10 or 12 lines

The poem, like An Irish Airman Foresees his Death, is personal

therefore there is no regular rhyme scheme


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References to events in History

Easter 1916:

Conspiring among the ignorant An image of such politics

Here Yeats is referring to Constances role in the Easter 1916

uprising.

The phrases themselves seem rather negative as he doesnt believein her method of protest and thinks she took advantage of

uneducated people to do her deeds

The older is condemned to death Constance was condemned to

death after the uprising; however she was pardoned as she was a

woman (women in that time were not executed)


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Imagery

Wealth:

The light of evening, Lissadell,

Great windows open to the south,

Two girls in silk kimonos, both

Beautiful, one a gazelle.

that old Georgian mansion

Here it is clear that the girls are of upper class as they are living in aGeorgian mansion and wearing the latest fashions silk kimonos


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Imagery

Youth:

I know not what the younger dreams/ Some vague Utopia

young, foolish and nave

Time: Blossom from the summers wreathas from the first four lines, the

girls were clearly beautiful in their youth but here Yeats is saying that

time has stripped them for their beauty as they are nowWhen

withered old and skeleton-gaunt

Dear shadows shadows of the past, past memories, speakingagain of their ignorance

Have no enemy but timetime is the true enemy here


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LEDA AND THE SWAN

Context:

Loosely based on the mythological tale of Leda and the Swan of awoman who is raped by Zeus and later falls pregnant with Helen ofTroy.

Yeats uses the story to symbolise Englands boisterous control overIreland

Themes:

Mythology


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Portraits of Leda and the SwanIt is very interesting to see that artists paint the story to be sensual, even as a great

love story


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Form and Structure

The structure follows the Petrarchan sonnet (abab cdcd efg efg); it is

quite ironic that Yeats has used this structure as it is normally to

reflect emotions of love, which contrasts this poems violent and

dark qualities

There is caesura following the word blow as Leda is shocked and

vulnerable against the sudden attack


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Analysis

The poem itself is ambiguous as we do not know if it is consensual

or rape

Images of it being consensual:

her thighs caressed her nape caught in his bill,/ He holds her

helpless breast upon his breast A shudder in the loins We could interpret this phrases as that Leda was giving herself to

Zeus; however the by the adjective helpless we could interpret that

she had no choice

Images of rape:

Above the staggering girl terrified vague fingers her looseningthighs A shudder in the loins engenders there/ The broken wall

Here Leda is portrayed to be weak and victim-like as she cannot

push the swan off


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Analysis

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower/ And Agamemnon

deadYeats is referring to the destruction of Troy after/during the

war and Agamemnons demise

Yeats, like most of his poems, finishes the poem with a rhetorical

question which leaves the reader wondering what happened next.

Maybe here he is questioning the fate of Ireland, questioning what

will happen next to the country and its people


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SAILING TO BYZANTIUM

Context:

A myth originating from the Old Testament, a group of men built a grandtower but God destroyed it and divided the people. Using this idea Yeatscould be referencing to the destruction caused by the First World War.

Themes:

Death

Art

Nature


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Form and Structure

Yeats uses Ottava Rima as he does in Among School children


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Imagery

Yeats paints a negative self-portrait, he is bitter about his ownageing and decay therefore he reduces himself to a tattered coatupon a stick An aged man is but a paltry thing

that is not a country for old menYeats feels he no longer belongsin Ireland

Nature

Nature here is presented to be harmonious the young in oneanothers arms, birds in the treesYeats seems bitter as they haveeach other and their looks, Yeats again is wallowing in self-pity

Eternal Glory Yeats wants to be more than the scarecrow-like figure, he wants to

be cast in gold to be forever, and eternal work of art Greciangoldsmiths make of hammered gold and gold enamelling


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THE CAT AND THE MOON

Context:

After Maud turned Yeats proposal of marriage down for the final time,he proposed to Mauds daughter

The poem can be interoperated as the relationship between Maud andYeats as the cat Minnaloushe was purposively owned by Maud

Themes:

Nature

Gyres


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Form and Structure

The poem itself is song-like as it is very rhythmic and repetitive

There is a lot of rhyming; which adds to the rhythm of the poem

Use of alliteration makes the poem lyrical, and childish


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Analysis

The cat in the poem is Yeats, who is attracted to and influenced by

the Moon (Maud)

The moon has always been associated with women and the

menstrual cycle

In the poem the moon is almost tormenting the cat The pure coldlight in the sky/ Troubled his animal blood

However the moonlight shining on the cat implies that Maud is what

makes Yeats works so magnificent, as Maud is the muse behind

most of Yeats poems


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Analysis

The yolk and the white of one shell

The cat went here and there / and the moon spun around like a

top.

Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils Will pass from change to

change, And that from round to crescent Yeats here implies that the cat and the moon are meant to be

together and their similarities is what unites them

Contrast:

The cat is black and the moon is white; the use of binary opposites

shows how distant the two objects really are


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Moon cycle/ Cats pupils


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THE FISHERMAN

Context:

The Fisherman is about Yeats scorn for the public and their disrespect ofart.

Yeats longs for an ideal Ireland of a time long passed, a perfect Ireland, aperfect audience, and a perfect man which the Fisherman is theembodiment of

Themes:

Time

Opposites

An Ideal Ireland


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Form and Structure

Yeats uses a simple rhyme scheme to illustrate his point, Yeats also

makes his sentence structures simple for the wise and simple man

His poem has almost been forced to be made simple as the public

and the new world have demanded it so

Yeats uses the form and structure to criticize the audience, tensionsbuild in the second stanza until a crescendo at the end of the

stanza, here the structure and form is used to mirror Yeats emotions

of anger

The beating down of the wise/ And great Art beaten down.

Stanza three is more of a reflection stanza as Yeats looks back onwhat he has written, here in the third stanza he writes with clarity as

he writes of the fisherman


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Imagery

Yeats begins and ends the poem creating an image of an idealisticIreland and the perfect man

The freckled man who goes/ To a gray place on a hill/ In grayConnemara clothes/ At dawn to cast his flieshere we have anidealistic picture of a rural Ireland where men work hard doing

physical tasks At the start, after Yeats describes the fisherman, he goes on to talk

about the disrespectful audience and by the middle of the secondstanza Yeats anger is overpowering

Though the fisherman fires Yeats argument and anger at the start ofthe poem; by the end of the poem in stanza three the fishermanrepresents an only form of comfort that Yeats has, almost like theimage of the fisherman is the only thing keeping him going


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Oxymorons and Opposites

The wise and simple man here Yeats is being ironic as the

audience are simple, and if there was a wise man he is consumed

by materialistic things of the modern world.

Here it is clear that Yeats longs for an ideal audience who

appreciate art and are just as intelligent as himself

as cold/ And passionate as the dawn-the use of opposites here

emphasises that the old world and the modern world do not mix as

they are so different. The world Yeats dreams of is a world where

literature and art were still cherished, in this new hedonistic world

materialistic objects and human pleasures (drinking, sex etc) seem

to be more important


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THE MAN AND THE ECHO

Context:Based on the Greek Mythology of Narcissus and Echo

Yeats is thinking about things from his past and whether he could havedone more

Themes:

MythologyNature

Death

Regret


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Narcissus and Echo

Echo was a nymph who fell in love with Narcissus when she sees him for

the first time

Echo reveals herself to Narcissus and he rejects her love

Echo wastes away until she remains just a voice in the wind Narcissus after hunting lays by a spring for a drink but catches sight of his

reflection, he instantly falls in love with himself and wont be moved from the

spring. He wastes away with the love for his own reflection

When Narcissus body is gone all is left is a Narcissus flower: a pale flower

near the river banks so it can be reflected on the water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Echo_and_Narcissus.jpg


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Form and Structure

The poem is made of rhyming couplets:

Man. In a cleft that's christened Alt

Under broken stone I halt

At the bottom of a pit

That broad noon has neverlit,

Trochaic tetrameter


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Mythology

In a cleft that's christened Alt-this is a reference to a hill in Ireland

that is supposed to a Celtic burial ground

Echo and Narcissus in the poem could be referring to Yeats (echo)

and Maud (Narcissus) or Yeats (echo) and Ireland (Narcissus) or

Yeats (Narcissus) and Margo (echo)

The Effect of echo:

Echo. Lay down and die. is put between each stanza to show

Yeats in conflict with his thoughts, the echo is an extension of

himself and his echo are only repeating his words and ideas back to

him adding to Yeats loneliness


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References to historical events/

events in Yeats life

Did that play of mine send out/ Certain men the English shot?

this refers to Easter 1916 and the executions after the uprising. This

phrase also refers to a play that Yeats wrote Cathleen ni Houlihan

here Yeats is wondering if he was a cause of the uprising

Did words of mine put too great strain/ On that womans reeling

brain? here Yeats is referring to mentally unstable Margo Collins,

who was a writer and Yeats had an affair with. She became a muse

of his, and he tried to mentor her to improve her own poetry. Yeats

broke off the relationship, due to her poetry, she had a breakdown

and committed suicide

Could my spoken words have checked/ That whereby a house laywrecked? here Yeats is wondering if he could have done anything

to stop the destruction of Lady Gregorys mansion and the

destruction of Coole Park


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Themes and Imagery

Crisis of Faith:

What do we know but that we face/ One another in this place?here, like in The Cold Heaven, Yeats is questioning what is thereafter death and if there is a Heaven

Death:

Echo. Lay down and die. is death the only way out?Nature:

Up there some hawk or owl has struck,Dropping out of sky or rock,

A stricken rabbit is crying out,

And its cry distracts my thought Here Nature is volatile and destructive, even to an extent pointless

Is Yeats distracted by what he sees, oris he trying to make a pointthat life is volatile and destructive?


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THE SECOND COMING

Context:

Written after World War I, at a time of change

Themes:Gyres

Death


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Gyres

a geometrical shape

- Yeats theory of life expressed in A Vision each gyre gradually

rotates towards a point of maximum expansion, at this point a new

gyre starts in the centre of the previous. And thus it continues in a

never ending line.

Source: www.aterriblebeautyisborn.com


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Imagery

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the worldlike a caged beast being

released to cause destruction, the beast could be a symbol for

World War I

Is moving its slow thighs, while all around it / Reel shadows of

indignant desert birds the beast about to take its prey

The poem ends with a rhetorical question, like many of his poems

including Leda and the Swan, the effect is it leaves death and life in

the balance and our fates uncertain:

its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be

born?


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Biblical references

The blood dimmed tide is loose -Revelation 17:3-6 that says thebeast will come as a predecessor to the second coming of Christ.

REVELATION 16:3

And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and itbecame as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in

the sea.MATTHEW 24: 27-31

27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth evenunto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28Forwheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gatheredtogether.

REVELATION 17: 3-6

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw awoman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names ofblasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.


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THE STOLEN CHILD

Context:

Yeats earlier poems, he wrote this aged twenty-one when he wasbeginning his career. In his earlier poems Yeats writes moreromantically and based his poems on Irish mythology

Themes:

Mythology

Nature


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Form and Structure

The poem is almost lyrical due to certain qualities such as the line(s)

that repeat at the end of each stanza which almost acts as a

refrain/chorusFor the world's more full of weeping than you can

understand

The rhythm is quite steady due to the simple rhyming scheme, the

rhythm makes the poem seem like a childs song or poem, adding tothe child-like and fantasy quality of the poem


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Imagery

Yeats creates this elaborate fairytale-like kingdom where he is able tobe free, free from his troubles and the modern world

the reddest stolen cherriesthe fruit seems very alluring andirresistible, here the faeries are trying to lure the child

Nature and Freedom

the waters and the wildfreedom

the frothy bubblesfree, without a care or so it seems on thesurface

wandering water gushes For the world's more full of weeping than you can understandthe

idea of escaping troubles/reality


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THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE

Context:Yeats would come to Coole Park often to write poetry, Coole Park washome to a good friend of Yeats: Lady Gregory

Here in The Wild Swans at Coole he writes of the park and how itchanges over time

Themes:Time

Nature


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Form and Structure

5, 6 line stanzas roughly following the iambic meter structure,

First and third lines are in tetrameter

2nd, 4th and 6th lines are in trimeter with the 5th line(s) in pentameter

The poem similarly resembles a ballad due to its structure and

strong emotion A-B-C-B-D-D rhyming scheme


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Imagery

Harmony and Love:

Unwearied still, lover by lover, Their hearts have not grown old;-the swans are at peace with each other and are young at heart asthey seem to be passionately in love. Perhaps the swans remindYeats of a memory of his youth, he almost seems jealous and bitter

as they have each other and he can never have Maud: the womanof his dreams

on the still water/ Mysterious, beautiful;nature in harmony

Time:

Under the October twilight the water/ Mirrors a still sky;-natureseems to be harmonious; but also here we are reminded by the skythat with time and the change of seasons that the sky changes too

The nineteenth Autumn has come upon me

in great broken rings- time and its continuous cycle, time issomething greater than us humans: destiny, the bigger picture


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Imagery and further analysis

Jealousy:

And now my heart is sore feelings of jealousy as he looks uponthe swans and sees how happy and in love they are

Loneliness:

nine and fifty swans-adding to feelings of being alone in a crowd

etc brilliant creatures-he can only watch these creatures and not touch

or join them adding to Yeats feelings of loneliness and issolation

Further Analysis:

Yeats ends the poem, like The Cold Heaven, with a rhetoricalquestion showing Yeats confusion as he ponders in mid-thought

Yeats could be thinking of what would he do after Maud dies, afterall she is the main focus of his life and his poetry


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Use of Onomatopoeia

clamorous beat scatter

These words are harsh, powerful and even violent sounding

The use of onomatopoeia is used to show Yeats anger and

frustration as he looks back on certain parts of his life, from the

words chosen we can only assume that these are bad memories


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AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN

Context:

Yeats was a famous public figure and was invited to many events andschools etc.

One day, when he was a special guest at a school, he walks aroundimagining what Maud was like at this age; and he also thinks about theGreat Philosophers

Themes:Mythology

Reflection


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Form and Structure

Ottava Rima: normally used for epic poetry to reflect deep thoughtsor philosophical ideas


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Analysis

The public manhere Yeats is referring to himself and hisimportance

stand before me as a living childhere Yeats is thinking whatMaud would have been like at that age

A Ledean body For even daughters of the swan can share

Something of every paddlers heritagea link to Leda and theSwan, Yeats is also referring to Maud

a comfortable kind of old scarecrowYeats here is aware that he isolder now and aged, he paints a haggard and negative image ofhimself. In Sailing to Byzantium he also describes himself asatattered coat upon a stick

How can we know the dancer from the dance?like most of hispoems, Yeats ends with a rhetorical question, making the readerreflect


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The Great Philsophers

Plato the yolk and white of an egghere Yeats is referring to Platos idea

of the egg/sphere, Yeats here is implying that Maud and him aresupposed to be together

Plato thought nature but a spume that plays/ Upon a ghostly

paradigm of thingsreferring to Platos complex theory of the caveand shadows

Aristotle

Solider Aristotle played the taws/ Upon the bottom of a king ofkingsAristotle who taught Alexander the Great

Pythagoras World-famous golden-thighed Pythagoras/ Fingered upon a fiddle-

stick or stringsPythagoras was a mathematician, who alsodabbled in music. He created the idea of perfect 4ths, 5ths andoctaves


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AN IRISH AIRMAN FORESEES HISDEATH

Context:

Set in World War I

Yeats wrote this as an elegy to Major Robert Gregory: the son of Lady

Gregory (one of Yeats best friends) who lived in Kiltartan

Themes:

Death

Fate


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Form and Structure

The tight structure creates an echo effect as if the airman is certainto die

In Iambic tetrameter

Caesurabefore the last two words this death emphasising that the

airmans life is in the hands of destiny, however the caesura could

imply that death is the only way out


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Imagery and Analysis

Fate:

I KNOW that I shall meet my fate/ Somewhere among the clouds

above;-sense of being destined to die

clouds above-perhaps a link to The Wild Swans at Coole (the

place Major Gregory would have grew up/lived) mirrors a still

sky

In balance with this life, this deaththe airmans life in the hands of

fate

Death and destruction:

tumult in the clouds waste of breath

A lonely impulse of delightambiguous; however it could be

interoperated as the airman taking pleasure in killing/death


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Further Analysis

Those that I fight I do not hate /Those that I guard I do not love;Ireland did not feel threatened by World War I

Those that I guard I do not loveFighting with the British who had

oppressed the Irish for many years

The use ofpronouns makes the poem seem personal more than

just a poem written for the public for entertainment

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