Many key words jut out, giving us clues to which Yeats is describing. The most significant is “Love” on the tenth line. “Love” is capitalized representing William Yeats himself. Yeats or “Love” fled because he knew it was the best for her. When one loves another unconditionally sacrifices must be made; in this case ending the relationship was the solution. Two other key words are located in the sixth line, “false” and “true”. These words are used to exemplify the love she received from her past relationships. Some men truly loved her while others were artificial with their...
Yeats' early work was not especially Irish. Soon, however, he began to look to the ancient rituals and pagan beliefs of the land for his artistic inspiration. He tried to merge this interest with his aristocratic tastes to create an original Irish poetry and to establish his own identity.
Having a view of something that is different from what is traditional can often be frowned upon. During the Romantic period, the writers were swaying away from what was considered normal writing at that time. The church was a big influence on everyone during the Renaissance and if any one so much as “stepped out of line” the church made sure they were punished. Going against them was seen as going against God. A man named William Butler Yeats created a unique philosophical system woven from his own insights and the ideas of many thinkers. Yeats expressed himself using symbols which stand for something beyond itself, give rise to a number of associations, and intensifies feelings and adds complexity to meaning by concentrating these associations together. Using vivid language and rich symbols to make his argument, Yeats relies on the emotional impact of specific word choices and symbolic images to convey meaning and “convince” his readers. William Butler Yeats shows in “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium” that the elements, gyres, and idea of a perfect place all add up to h...
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. However, if the reader views the last two lines of the poem in light which brings redemption, one might see that Keats merely wants to express the importance of this dominant fear in his life. He does not desire for his audience to focus on death, but to realize that man does not have control of when it comes. The poet uses poetic diction, a popular technique of the early nineteenth century. The poem also demonstrates formal diction that Keats is often known for. Although Keats meant for most of his words to interpret with denotative meanings, he does present a few examples of allusion and connotation. His connotations include “teeming,” defined as plen...
William Butler Yeats was born on June thirteenth, eighteen sixty-five, at ten-forty pm, in Sandymount, Dublin (Foster, 13). He grew up lanky, untidy, slightly myopic, and extremely thin. He had black hair, high cheek bones, olive skin, and slanting eyes (Foster, 34). It was presumed he was Tubercular. As a child he was ridiculed, mainly because of his Irish heritage (Foster, 16). He accomplished many things in his life time.
“Sailing to Byzantium”, published in 1928, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, published in 1919, and “The Second Coming”, published in 1920, are all some of the most highly regarded works of William Butler Yeats. Although each poem seemingly contains its own personal ideas and focus on particular topics, one common theme is found throughout all three: death. In “Sailing to Byzantium” Yeats discusses the matter of growing old and attempting to find a way to live eternally after death has taken its toll, while in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” he creates an internal dialogue of an Irish airman as he feels he is about to take his final flight into death, and lastly in “The Second Coming” he creates an allegory for post-war Ireland by alluding to the Apocalypse. Each of these poems is popular not only due to the incredible manner in which they were written, but rather, due to the voice in which Yeats discusses each of the poem’s respective subjects. Through his modernist style, yet traditional form, William Butler Yeats wrote “Sailing to Byzantium”, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, and “The Second Coming” as an attempt to answering the difficult questions that surround death in a way which resonated so strongly onto the audience that continues its legacy to this day.
“William Butler Yeats.” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 09 May 2014.
Yeats, William Butler. The De-Anglicizing of Ireland” in Yeats’s Poetry, Drama, and Prose. ed. Pethica, James. W.W. Norton & Company, USA, 2000.
The importance of this book is that it contains some of the works of poetry which were carried out by William Yeats. Arguably, the most salient feature in the book is the attempt at portraying the shift that characterized Yeats in his work, so that his works are arranged almost chronologically to underscore this standpoint. Works that depict him as a bard of the Celtic Twilight, reviving Rosicrucian symbols and legends are the most frontal. These are followed up by works which show the shift away from plush romanticism. The same are exhibited by the heavy presence of incantatory rhythms such as “I will arise and go… and go to Innisfree”. The same is seen in the lyrics, “as passionate and cold as the dawn”.
Owens, Coilin D., and Peter C. Holloran. "William Butler Yeats." Literary Reference Center Plus. Critical Survey Of Drama, Second Revised Edition, 2003. Web. 14 May 2014.
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
The Anglo-Irish Protestant marginal no longer had control over the Irish civilization and culture, and he felt more detached from the excellent achievement of the old Anglo-Irishmen after the death of the Protestant leaders. Yeats's views that were against democracy stated that the prominence of Anglo-Irishmen like Jonathan Swift, great philosophers, and the citizens like Edmund Burke juxtaposed severely through the ordinary normalness of the modern Irish community that appeared engrossed by the welfares of dealers and laborers. Yeats specified his shunned views in the last dramas like Agony (1938) and the theses of On the Reservoir (1939). Through his endeavors, Yeats helped to shape the Irish culture and left a
The tales were rediscovered around 1880 inspiring the Irish literary revival in romantic fiction by writers such as Lady Augusta Gregory and the poetry and dramatic works of W.B. Yeats. These works wer...
The first stanza is crowded with sensual and concrete images of nature and its ripeness during the first stages of Autumn. Autumn is characterized as a “season of…mellow fruitfulness” (1). It is a season that “bend[s] with apples the mossed cottage-trees” (5), “fill[s] all fruit with ripeness to the core” (6), “swell[s] the gourd, and plump[s] the hazel shells” (7), and “set[s] budding more” (8). The verbs that Keats uses represent the bustling activity of Autumn and also reflect the profusion of growth. Autumn also acts as the subject of all the verbs, indicating its dynamic behavior. Furthermore, the multitude of these images depicting the ripening of nature contributes to the sense of abundance that characterizes the first stanza. The stanza also contains many short phrases, again calling up images of abundance. Keats, through his use of sensual imagery, draws readers into the real world where there will ultimately be decay and death. The sound devices in this stanza further develop the sensual imagery and...
Roe, Nicholas. John Keats and the Culture of Dissent. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.