Personal And Universal Human Experiences In W. B. Yeats's Poetry

W.B. Yeats poetry effectively reconciles the personal and the universal in that while he talks of personal experiences, he immortalizes these common, universal human experiences within his poetry. In order to understand how Easter 1916 encompasses both the personal and universal, one must comprehend the context of it. It talks of the sacrifice made by Irish Republicans who wanted to gain independence from Great Britain and lost their lives in the Easter Rising. Art was generally more romantic at the time, not political. Yeats was creating something groundbreaking when he analysed this historical event. It garnered interest from the public because of the widespread Irish nationalism at the time; the poem was published only five years after the initial event. Yeats uses free verse in iambic trimeter, and rhythm to prolong contemplation of certain verses and lines.

The first stanza opens with the narrator running into people he knows on the streets, making

However, they both are able to encompass ideas of the personal and universal.

ABCBDD rhyme format is used, and there is a sense of melancholy throughout the poem. This is highlighted in lines such as “I have looked upon those brilliant creatures.” It is not entirely dreary though, there is a sense of light nostalgia as well. The poem is set in autumn, the time of change. The notion of change links Easter 1916 and Wild Swans at Coole. It is the 19th autumn, the first of the odd numbers in the poem. The other is the description of the swans as ‘nine and fifty swans’, also an odd number. This creates a sense that something is a bit off.

‘Still’ is repeated 4 times throughout the poem. The double meaning of still refers to the idea of ongoing (as in ‘they are still running’) or unmoving (as in ‘that deer is standing still). Both ideas are applicable to Yeats’ beliefs of the paradox of