Comparing The Indian to His Love and The Hosting of the Sidhe

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The Indian to His Love and The Hosting of the Sidhe

The Aesthetic Movement, as exemplified by "The Indian to His Love," by W. B. Yeats, seems lifeless and insipid when compared to his "The Hosting of the Sidhe." The images of the two poems are so completely different that they almost demand a different set of rules dealing with their creation. It would be virtually impossible for Yeats to deal effectively with the subject matter of "The Hosting of the Sidhe" in the same manner as "The Indian to His Love" because he is viewing the world from a different perspective for each poem.

There is little relationship between the characters of "The Indian to His Love" and those of "The Hosting of the Sidhe." In the former, Yeats deals exclusively with mortals, idealized perhaps, but nonetheless mortals who must deal with the world as mortals: "Here we will moor our lovely ship/ And wander ever with woven hands," and. "How we alone of mortals are." These characters are not only mortals, but are anonymous in that they have no personal identities, and there is no representation of them as individuals. The lovers seem to decorate the scene much as the "peahens" and the "parrot." Yeats does, however, remind the readers of the characters' mortality even while he makes them seem timeless. "How when we die our shades will rove" tells clearly that those mortals may be in a dream, but even this dream is destined to end.

In "The Hosting of the Sidhe," in contrast to "The Indian and His Love," Yeats deals with the ...

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...e the reader at all. On the other hand, in "The Hosting of the Sidhe," Yeats presents the ideal of life: immortals in a real world. Yeats wants the reader to feel the life in this poem, not just observe it. The poem reaches out and coaxes: "Away, come away:/ Empty your heart of its mortal dream." The world Yeats sees in each poem is completely different, and by choosing his words carefully and changing his style of writing, he allows readers to see that difference and to feel it.

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