W.B. Yeats

1. W.B. Yeats

2. The Lake Isle of Innisfree Stanza 1 • Yeats wants to go & live on the island of Innisfree. • He would like to live there by himself & lead a simple life. • He would like to build a small cabin & wants to grow his own food.

3. The Lake Isle of Innisfree Stanza 2 • The poet describes the tranquillity of the island. The mornings are very peaceful & filled with sounds of crickets chirping “ for peace comes dropping slow”. • At noon the heather glows purple in the sunlight. • At night the glittering stars are reflected in the water.

4. The Lake Isle of Innisfree Stanza 3 • The thought of Innisfree is always in the poet’s mind & heart: “I hear it in the deep heart’s core”. • He is always imagining the pleasant sounds of its waters: “for always night and day/ I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore”.

5. The Lake Isle of Innisfree Themes • Escape The speaker wishes to live a peaceful life away from the hustle & bustle of the city. The idea of being self-sufficient & independent is very attractive to him.

6. The Lake Isle of Innisfree Themes • A Love of Nature The poet longs for the tranquillity & peace of the countryside. The poem celebrates the beauty of Innisfree. The island is alive with the sounds of nature, the chirping of the crickets, the buzzing of the bees, etc. It also celebrates the visual aspect of the island.

7. The Wild Swans at Coole Before you read: Swans are a common subject in poetry, as well as mythology and fairy tales. With the person beside you think of as many examples of swans in stories or popular culture. Discuss what you think swans might represent or stand for.

8. The Wild Swans at Coole • This poem is set in Coole Park, Co. Galway. • Yeats is wandering through the grounds of the park when he sees a flock of swans floating on a lake. • The sight of the swans reminds Yeats of his first visit to the park 19 years earlier. • He thinks about how much his life has changed since.

9. The Wild Swans at Coole Stanza 1 • The poem begins by setting an autumn scene: “The trees are in their autumn beauty”. • Yeats suggests this place is beautiful, calm & peaceful.

10. The Wild Swans at Coole Stanza 2 • It is 19 years since Yeats first visited the park & saw the swans upon the lake. • On the first visit he attempted to count the number of the swans, however the swans flew into the air before he could finish counting them. • The strength (“clamourous”) & power of the swans is suggested by the poet’s description of them flying away.

11. The Wild Swans at Coole Stanza 3 • The poet admires the swans, calling them “brilliant creatures”. • But the sight of their beauty makes him feel sad because his life has changed so much since he first saw the swans 19 years ago, when he was a much younger man. • Back then he “trod with a lighter tread” – his body was youthful.

12. The Wild Swans at Coole Stanza 4 • The swans ‘hearts’ have not grown old. Their lives are still full of passion & adventure(“passion & conquest”). • The swans are not alone, they travel in pairs: “lover by lover”. • The swans are free to fly anywhere they please: “wander where they will”.

13. Wild Swans at Coole Stanza 5 • Yeats knows he will wake up one day & they will be gone. • He wonders where the swans will build their nests once they leave Coole:“Among what rushes will they build”. • Wherever they go they will bring “delight to men’s eyes”.

14. The Wild Swans at Coole Themes • Growing Older Yeats is preoccupied with getting older. He feels as a middle aged man, that passion & adventure are no longer a big part of his life. • Beauty of Nature The poet describes the peacefulness of Coole Park. He praises the beauty of the swans.

15. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death Adrenaline Junkies – why do they do it??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gqv1Fzj1Tg

16. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death Themes A bleak view of life: • The airman has a very negative view of life. He has carefully weighed up or ‘balanced’ every part of his existence and decided the whole thing is a pointless ‘waste of breath’. • The airman knows that he will ‘meet his fate’ in battle but continues to fly even though he doesn’t have to. It is as if he has a death wish. • The airman takes ‘delight’ in the thrill of flying and in risking his own life. He only feels alive when he is involved in the chaos or ‘tumult’ of battle. As it is the only place he feels alive he thinks there is an appropriate ‘balance’ in dying during combat. • The ordinary existence of working, falling in love and having children hold no appeal for the airman. He sees them as simply a ‘waste of breath’.

17. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death Themes Yeats’ attitude to Gregory: • Yeats has a complex attitude towards those who risk their lives in combat. On the one hand he clearly admires men of action and he feels Gregory’s ‘lonely impulse of delight’ makes him superior to the average soldier. The speaker’s suicidal insistence on fighting even though he knows he will die are presented as rational by Yeats. He has weighed up his options and is happy to die. • However, on the other hand there is a sense that Gregory is depicted as an adrenaline junkie. The thrill of flying and combat lures him into fighting even though he knows he ‘will meet his fate’ in the clouds. • Yeats sees Gregory as brave and admirable but also as reckless and impulsive.

18. Politics • The poet is having a discussion with two people about the political situation in Russia, Italy & Spain in 1938, but he cannot focus or “fix his attention” on these urgent matters, but rather by the beauty of a girl who’s “standing there”.

19. Politics • Yeats is in conversation with two wise, well-informed people, a well-travelled man who “knows/what he talks about” an a learned politician. • They discuss rumours of approaching war (“war’s alarms”).

20. Politics • However, Yeats cannot concentrate on the serious & urgent matters they discuss. His thoughts are continually drawn to the beauty of the young girl. He longs to be young once more, so that he could be her lover: “But would that I were young again/And held here in my arms”.

21. September 1913

22. September 1913

23. September 1913

24. September 1913

25. September 1913 • ‘September 1913’ is a public poem, a political ballad in which Yeats expresses his disillusionment with the Irish middle classes, merchants & Catholic Church during the 1913 Dublin Lockout.

26. September 1913 Stanza 1 • Poet speaks directly to the merchants. • Yeats has nothing but contempt for these Catholic Middle Class. • He feels they have dried “the marrow from the bone”. • The image of the shop-keeper fumbling in a “greasy till” for a few pennies suggest their absolute meanness & materialism.

27. September 1913 Stanzas 2 & 3 • Yeats contrasts the greedy middle-classes with the selfless heroes of Ireland’s past. • These heroes, Yeats argues, have little or nothing in common with the penny-pinching merchants of Ireland in 1913: “Yet they were of a different kind”.

28. September 1913 • This un-Romantic Ireland is not the Ireland the heroes fought & died to all that blood was shed”.

29. September 1913 Stanza 4 • Yeats believes, that if the heroes came back to life, they would be mocked & ridiculed by the middle classes who now dominate the country & who are incapable of understanding the heroes’ Romantic idealism & self-sacrifice. • Yeats concludes, that it’s better to let the heroes rest in peace: “But let them be they’re dead and gone”.

30. September 1913 Questions • There is a clear contrast in the poem between past and present. Show how Yeats describes this contrast. • Why do you think the poet links ‘pence’ and ‘prayer’ so closely in his description of the middle classes? • What does ‘Romantic Ireland’ mean in the context of the poem? • There is a suggestion in the poem that extreme patriotism might be seen as a form of madness. Do you think the poet agrees with this view? Explain your answer with reference to the poem.

31. September 1913: Personal Response • What do you think is the main message of this poem? Refer to the poem and your notes when explaining your answer. • Do you think the poem has a significance for the Ireland of the present day? Are the issues it raises of any interest to you?

32. Easter 1916

33. Easter 1916 Section 1 • In the first section, Yeats, speaks of “them” – Pearse, Markiewicz, McDonagh & MacBride. • It is very clear what Yeats thought of them before the Rising – polite tolerance “polite meaningless words” • Last 2 lines- the very people he mocked have risen up in arms against the British, Romantic Ireland has been resurrected but at a very bloody cost: “All changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born”.

34. Easter 1916 Section 2 • Yeats describes some of those that took part in the Rising: “That woman” – Constance Markiewicz “this man” – PadraigPearse “This other” – Thomas McDonagh “this other man”- John MacBride

35. Easter 1916 Section 3 • Yeats looks at the mentality of people who are willing to lay down their lives for a cause. • The hearts of these people have been “enchanted to a stone” and are devoted to one purpose alone. • The image of the “living stream” represents life that is always changing and the stone in the middle represents the Irish patriots who are unchanging, inflexible and are fanatical about their cause. • This inflexibility has come at a terrible price, these men are now like stones – they are dead as a result of their inflexible heroism.

36. Easter 1916 Section 4 • Yeats asks of the sacrifice “when may it suffice?” He is filled with sorrow and despair at the blood that has been spilled in the name of Irish freedom. • Having celebrated self-sacrifice in the past as something heroic, Yeats is suddenly confronted with the reality of this sacrifice. Men he knew have been shot dead. • When will the sacrifice be enough to get what Ireland wants, Yeats asks. However, he seems to say it is not our place to know the future, that is for ‘Heaven’ to decide.

37. Easter 1916 Section 4 • All we can do is “murmur name upon name”. The spirit of the dead men will be kept alive through the act of remembering them. • Yeats uses a beautiful simile likening those who have died to a child who has fallen asleep after a tiring day. • Yeats struggles to understand the meaning of their deaths in the final stanza of the poem. He wants to imagine it is just nightfall for these men but he has to acknowledge the reality – they do not sleep peacefully. • Whether their deaths were in vain or not Yeats decides it is possible to wear green with pride once more, though it comes at a price that is “terrible”.

38. Easter 1916 Questions • Write a few sentences on how you think the following phrases from the poem: “Too long a sacrifice”, “heart of stone” and “excess of love” may be linked. Do they give us an idea of Yeats’ view of these patriots? • The poem has many striking images. Choose two of these and explain how they contribute to the effect of the poem. • Easter 1916 and An Irish Airman Foresees His Death both deal with war. Are the attitudes expressed in both similar or are their differences? • Having read the poem, how does it make you feel about those who took part in the 1916 Rising? Do you feel (a) like condemning them (b) like admiring them or (c) that they were brave but foolish. Give reasons for your choice and refer to the poem in your answer.

39. The Second Coming • Yeats believed that every two thousand years the dominant culture would fall apart and a new civilisation would replace it. This new one is the reverse of the old. • The power that Yeats sees replacing Christianity will be brutal and beastly in nature – “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun”. • Things are already beginning to fall apart which can be seen in the vivid imagery of the first stanza. (Examples??)

40. The Second Coming • Massive destruction is made worse by the lack of morals in the leaders of nations. (What was happening in the world at this time? World War I/The War of Independence) • Evil will triumph because the good people who should defend human values don’t have the determination to stop those in charge. • Instead of the second coming of Jesus Christ, an antichrist figure is coming, “its hour come at last”. • The poem shows Yeats’ appalled and powerful reaction to the violence and chaos of his time.

41. The Second Coming Write a paragraph on each of the following in the poem The Second Coming: • Language (the words Yeats uses in the poem and how they add to the message of the poem) • Imagery (the pictures Yeats creates, how they make you feel and how they add to the message of the poem) • Metaphor (find a metaphor in the poem, explain what is being compared and how it adds to the message of the poem) • Simile (find a simile in the poem, explain what is being compared and how it adds to the message of the poem)

42. TEST Many of Yeats’ poems are concerned with the idea of contrast. Discuss this view with reference to 3 poems by Yeats. In your answer discuss the language and imagery used in the poems and how it adds to the meaning of the poem. You may use your notes to help you answer.

43. Helpful starts! • After reading the poem………. • I believe the poet is trying to convey….. • I believe the poet displays a…. • It is clear from the poem……….. • There is a stark contrast between…… • I feel Yeats is trying to highlight……. • I think the poet is trying to suggest…..