William Butler Yeats, born in 1865 and died in 1939. Yeats is one of the greatest poets that is well known in the twentieth century. Also a philosophical person, Yeats had developed his own philosophy which states, “Yeats developed a philosophy that united his interest in history, art, personality, and society. His basic insight was that, in all these fields, conflicting forces are at work. In history, for example, as one kind of civilization grows and eventually dies, an opposite kind of civilization is born to take its place. Similarly, human personalities can be defined as opposites: the creative or subjective person versus the active or objective person.” (Prentice Hall Literature [page 1144 Yeats’s Philosophy]). With this said, Yeats believed that if you believed there was such a thing called a “soul” you would not only live a life of concentric circles, but indeed there would be this thing we call an “afterlife”. Thus, explaining Yeats’s Philosophy, meaning that we will be reborn depending on whether or not of you wanted to live life, or as he states it in Sailing to Byzantium, live the new life like a monument. Critic Richard Ellmann states, that Yeats’s poetry is based on the opposition between “the world of change” and a world of “changelessness”. Evidence of this is supported in Yeats poetry, When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming, and finally Sailing to Byzantium. All five of these poems represent change and stability in each poem; however, the change can vary among nature and civilization. In the first text, one of Yeats’s poem, When You Are Old, demonstrates a change in the physical appearance of civilization. An example is as follows, “When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;” (Prentice Hall Literature [page 1140 lines 1-4]). When You Are Old, by Yeats, describes how a man once young grew old and lost his beauty. As described in the text, one thing that changes is the physical appearance of a human beings face. Related to today’s society we begin to come up with “cures” to prevent aging, even though we basically drag around a decaying body waiting for our soul to set free, we find ways to prevent everything from sagging and bagging.
When You are Old, by William Butler Yeats, represents and elderly woman reminiscing of her younger days. A past lover whispers to her as she looks through a photo album. Basically, Yeats is showing that as the woman gets older, she is alone, but she does not have to be lonely. She will always have her memories for companionship.
...eme in his writing. Although the previous poems mentioned only represent a small fraction of Yeats’ writings, it is easy to see this repetitive idea. In When You Are Old the man’s love is never changing, however the woman’s realization of this is constantly wavering. Then in the poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree he wants to change his life from chaos to peace, and the lake never changes. Then in The Wild Swans at Coole the birds are always there, but the seasons change. The Second Coming also represents how mankind changes, but God’s principles are never-wavering. And lastly Sailing to Byzantium portrays how monuments never change, but what they mean to the viewers will always change. Yeats knew that this was something that future generations would also face, and therefore his poem will forever last in history but the importance of it is up to the future generations.
Poets use many different stylistic devices to capture the attention of the reader. After all, who wants to read a boring poem? Many times, it is the opening line that acts as the "hook." What better way to capture someone's attention than to incite emotion with the first word. Some poets use form to their advantage. Perhaps by writing the words out in different shapes, they will create a broader readership. Some poets use symbolism, or structure to benefit their artistic license. I prefer the subtler and less common stylistic devices. Fred Chappel, in "Narcissus and Echo," and William Butler Yeats poem, "Leda and the Swan." use different, yet effective stylistic devices to capture the attention of the reader and hold on to them throughout the entire poem.
Time is endlessly flowing by and its unwanted yet pending arrival of death is noted in the two poems “When I Have Fears,” by John Keats and “Mezzo Cammin,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Keats speaks with no energy; only an elegiac tone of euphoric sounds wondering if his life ends early with his never attained fame. He mentions never finding a “fair creature” (9) of his own, only experiencing unrequited love and feeling a deep loss of youth’s passion. Though melancholy, “Mezzo Cammin,” takes a more conversational tone as Longfellow faces what is commonly known as a midlife crisis. The two poems progressions contrast as Keats blames his sorrow for his lack of expression while Longfellow looks at life’s failures as passions never pursued. In spite of this contrast, both finish with similar references to death. The comparable rhyme and rhythm of both poems shows how both men safely followed a practiced path, never straying for any spontaneous chances. The ending tones evoking death ultimately reveal their indications towards it quickly advancing before accomplish...
There is always change in a persons life or loved one. No matter what happens something is always to be an outcome of it. In the poems, “When You Are Old”, “Lake Isle of Innisfree”, “The Wild Swans of Coole”, “The Second Coming”, and “Sailing to Byzantium”, Yeat’s shows the tension of change and ability. All of the poems show some kind of change no matter what it involves. Change can make you feel like nothing is the way that it was once before. You can sometimes not be too pleased with the way that your life is leading you and you need to make a change in some way to be happy again. When making changes in your life, you have to be sure not to make a religious change, you must always remember who is the creator of all things possible in your life. Think in a way that in years from now, what will still live on and be remembered in a positive way, those are the things that you need to cherish most in life. Life, love, hope, or death; it all proceeds to one ending: change.
Keats fears that he will not be able to accomplish all that he wants to do but he also recognizes how big and grand the world has become and does not want to leave it just yet. Through this recognition he realizes that his goals are meaningless compared to the grand scheme of life. Keats is grateful for the love and passion that he has already experienced and his regret is that he will no longer be able to experience it. Longfellow is regretful of his inaction in his past that is haunted by sorrows and death and thinks that he does not have a future. His overall tone of death is fearful and grim while Keats’s is more appreciative. Similarities in the poems lie in their beginnings, both of which have resentfulness towards the short-lived nature of life. Keats’s fear of ceasing to be parallels Longfellow saying, “half of [his] life is gone”. Keats uses the repetition of the word “before” as an anaphora to emphasize his concern of passing away before he can obtain his literary goals or utilize his opportunity to “ripen the full grain” (College Board). Similarly, Longfellow too expresses his failure to “fulfill the aspiration of [his] youth, to build, Some tower of song with lofty parapet.” The overall tones and emotions of each poem are similar but each underscores different situations and
"Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too." So often, people look back upon their youth and wish that they still had it before them. Our natural tendency is to fear old age, to see it as the precursor to death, rather than a time of life, desirable in its own right. However, in John Keats' poem, To Autumn, he urges us not to take this view, but to see old age as a beautiful and enviable state of life, rather than something to be feared.
In contrast, Longfellow begins by declaring his life is halfway over, but similarly that he wasted his half of his life without fulfilling his aspirations. While the poets are at very different points in their lives, they share a similar fear: not being able to leave a meaningful legacy after death. Keats is unable to experience love or fame and ends the poem with the line “Of unreflecting love - then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone, and think till love and fame to nothingness do sink.” (12-14) He indicates that though he hasn’t been able to experience love and fame, he recognizes that when an individual dies, these items die with us.
William Yeats is deliberated to be among the best bards in the 20th era. He was an Anglo-Irish protestant, the group that had control over the every life aspect of Ireland for almost the whole of the seventeenth era. Associates of this group deliberated themselves to be the English menfolk but sired in Ireland. However, Yeats was a loyal affirmer of his Irish ethnicity, and in all his deeds, he had to respect it. Even after living in America for almost fourteen years, he still had a home back in Ireland, and most of his poems maintained an Irish culture, legends and heroes. Therefore, Yeats gained a significant praise for writing some of the most exemplary poetry in modern history
Poetry provides a means of expressive writing through puzzling phrases and metaphorical references. John Keats, a famous Romantic poet, used these techniques in creating his vivid imagery. Keats heavily focused on the beauty of life and the experiences he encountered with sickness and loss. Because of this the majority of Keats’ poetry reflects the ability of humans to become greatly weakened by their emotions. Keats’ upbringing shaped his poetry and as time went on he learnt the purpose of values. His poetry vividly represents the surroundings Keats placed himself in and what he was exposed to. Three poems that significantly show these effects include his romantic poem “Stanzas to Miss Wylie” and his reflective poems “On Fame” and “When I
Yeats remote and classicist poetic arrangement, in its regular rhyme and meter, is an effort to permanently preserve the “beauty” of the “swans”. These “nine-and-fifty swans” as metaphors and images of the “mystical and beauty” were symbols of permanence to Yeats. However, Yeats inclusion of “autumn” and “October twilight”, as symbols of change, suggest though the swans are “still” in repose, they bear the instinct of flight. Yeats transition from the imagery of “still”, picturesque swans, to the opposing “clamorous” and “broken” image of their “mount” results in an interplay of tensions between permanence and transience. Through Yeats careful combination of tetrameter, trimeter and pentameter he evokes a sense of stillness, his poetic structure, however rigid cannot contain the aesthetic moments which “suddenly mount”, “above” and “away”. Through an interaction of imagery, tension and structure, perception is presented as transient and prone to flux, unable to be permanently fixed. Despite the fact that “all's changed”, Yeats has attended his “nineteenth autumn”. This combined with the circularity of the poem which returns to swans on the lake and metaphoric cyclical nature of “broken rings” demonstrates the continual change of perceptions that are resultant from discovery and
Yeats paradoxically expresses the collision of order and chaos extremely effectively, by representing order as the passing of time and chaos as the speaker's cognizance of the aging process as a consequence of time, resulting in the awareness of his own mortality. Both The Wild Swans at Coole and Among School Children represent order and chaos as the being intrinsically connected, thus inevitably colliding. In The Wild Swans at Coole, the speaker reminisces the inevitability of transformation which is a result of time passing and the suffering it brings about. Similarly, Among School Children reflects on the loss brought by aging, however, it emphasises the necessity of acknowledging this aspect of human experience rather than neglecting it
This opposition shows Keats highlighting the delicate correspondence between happiness, death and melancholy having humanistic traits. In order to experience true sorrow, one must feel true joy to see the beauty of melancholy. However, Keats’s poem is not all dark imagery, for interwoven into this poem is an emerging possibility of resurrection and the chance at a new life. The speaker in this poem starts by strongly advising against the actions and as the poem continues urges a person to take different actions.
Yeats' poetry is very dramatic because he usually creates dramatic contrasts within his poems and because his tone changes regularly. When he wasn't in conflict with the world around him he was in conflict with himself. He was never satisfied with modern Ireland, even when he was younger. As he grew older, his dissatisfaction became even greater.
Yeats and Eliot are two chief modernist poet of the English Language. Both were Nobel Laureates. Both were critics of Literature and Culture expressing similar disquietude with Western civilization. Both, prompted by the Russian revolution perhaps, or the violence and horror of the First World War, pictured a Europe that was ailing, that was literally falling apart, devoid of the ontological sense of rational purpose that fuelled post-Enlightenment Europe and America(1). All these similar experience makes their poetry more valuable to compare and to contrast since their thoughts were similar yet one called himself Classicist(Eliot) who wrote objectively and the other considered himself "the last Romantic" because of his subjective writing and his interest in mysticism and the spiritual. For better understanding of these two poets it is necessary to mention some facts and backgrounds on them which influenced them to incorporate similar (to some extent) historical motif in their poetry.