The ideas Yeats presents his readers with is the fact that change and changelessness coexist with one another and one cannot be without the other. He is able to explain this very well in his poems including When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming, and Sailing to Byzantium. Each of these poems has its own way of approaching this idea yet each and every one does express the ideas of change and changelessness even when the ways in which they do so are not entirely obvious to the readers. In the simple poetic lines and observations that Yeats presents his readers are able to gain insight into his own life as well as a deeper understanding of how the world around they could possibly work and also become more willing to accept changes when they happen and be happy with the stability they can see present in their lives.
On the other hand, instability only causes problems for some people. This concept is also discussed greatly in the world of poetry, especially in that of Yeats. Critic Richard Ellmann wrote that Yeat’s poetry is in fact about the opposition between “the world of change” and the world of “changelessness”. This analysis is very relevant. In Yeats’ poems: “When you are Old”, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, “The Wild Swans at Coole”, “The Second Coming”, and “Sailing to Byzantium” all show the struggle and opposition between change and stability in the world.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was a twentieth century poet who used past events to write poems about the future. Yeats had a very interesting philosophy. He combined his interests in history, art, personality, and society and wrote poems about how these subjects created conflicts in the world. Yeats used his poems and other writings to display his passion for mysticism. Yeats liked to use gyres to show how two different forces struggle against each other.
After his brother’s death, Keats started writing some of his most famous works, like “The Eve of Saint Agnes,” “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” “Lamia,” the completion of his long poem Hyperion, all of his great odes. In John Keats’ works he shows the reader his luxurious language and sumptuous imagery. His stanzas in the poems shows beauty, his poems usually reflect on death, love, pain, art and nature just like the other two poets Wordsworth and Blake. John Keats uses his poems to symbolize things. In Ode to a Nightingale the poem symbolizes old age and how it is tragic.
Keats uses articulate wording to exemplify his tone, while using images, figures of speech, symbols, and allegory to illustrate his fear of death. His use of rhythm, sounds, and patters also contribute to his concentration of fear and the effects on his life. As one of the most famous Romantic poets, John Keats utilizes the elements of poetry in “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” to convey his fears and allow the reader to realize how much these fears affect him. John Keats employs word choices and word order to illustrate his contemplative and sympathetic tone. The tone could be interpreted as pessimistic and depressing because the majority of the poem focuses on Keats’ fear of death.
By the end of the poem, the speaker is still tormenting over Lenore, because the raven is still sitting on top of his chamber door, reminding him, not letting him move on. Lenore was an example of ideal beauty, and as shown in this poem, it was impossible to regain it after it’s death. Lenore is the subject of another poem by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “Lenore”. In this case, the speaker is basically reprimanding “Guy De Vere” for killing his bride, leaving the speaker obsessing over what was, and what is now gone. In this poem, he is told to move on, because she is dead, and he cannot help that.
There are several reasons for his using this approach, from a feeling of being isolated, to a problem articulating thoughts (Bergonzi 18, Cuddy 13, Mack 1745, Martin 102). What influenced Eliot the most in writing poetry was a book he read written by the English critic, Arthur Symon, titled The Symbolist Movement in Literature. This book is about French symbolist writers of the 19th century. From this book, the author who had the greatest influence on Eliot is by far Jules Laforgue. Laforgue's influence is evident in many of Eliot's poems, sometimes to the point of plagiarism.
The themes of culture, society and language are at play in Hardy’s works, and his oeuvre was a small part of a much larger discourse. One of the most often cropped up themes in Hardy’s poetry is that of time. In “After a Journey,” the theme of time is used to underline how much can change after the death of a loved one. In this poem, ideas are explored about what responsibilities ones that have been left behind have. While it is difficult to dredge up the painful memories that we have of a person while they were alive, it can also be healing and comforting to remember them.
In E.E. Cummings’ poem old age sticks, he uses his distinctive writing style to illustrate the conflict between the two characters, “old age” and “youth”. The unusual way this poem is written allows various ways to comprehend each time the poem is read because of the spacing, parentheses, and word separation. This poem is very interesting in that it can be interpreted several different ways. Overall though, the main point of the poem is that eventually youth becomes the people they used to resent.
However, these quotes support the importance of emotion within poetry, but what about the importance of emotion within the poet? Throughout this essay, Lord Byron will be the main poet of focus, as his notorious lifestyle suggests that true emotion may have been his weakness. His poems 'Fare Thee Well!' (composed 18 March 1816: From Poems (1816)) and 'When we two parted' (composed August or September 1815: From Poems (1816)) will also be the primary focus, as they represent two negative influences which happened in Byron's life that would have produced an emotional response. When first approaching Byron's poetry, the reader would find it difficult not to judge the poem without putting it in the context of his famous reputation.