w.b.yeats and his poems

7/30/2019 W.B.yeats and His Poems

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W. B. Yeats and His

Poems


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William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

An Irish poet, drew wisdom and inspiration

from the ancient culture of Ireland. In his later

years he found a metaphysical approach to

poetry and wrote on the great, eternal subjects

of time and change, love and age, life and art

(The Wild Swans at Coole). There is

profound beauty in his poetry.


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Acknowledged as one of the greatest poets in the

English language, Yeatss work covered 50 years.

He was deep-rooted in Irish culture with its folklore,

legends, music and magic, from which he drawwisdom and inspiration and he wrote about the

traditions and history of the Irish nation. (He was

active in the Irish struggle for independence and the

founding of a national Irish theatre).


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Born in Dublin influenced by the currents of

Irish nationalism

With a fellow Irishman Oscar Wilde he

organized the Rhymers club

In 1899 fell desperately in love with Maud

Gonne a beautiful actress and passionate Irish

nationalist who refused to marry him and she

is the subject of most of his love p


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Yeats actively participated the movement but

disapprove the bloodshedding together with a

noble woman and playwriter found the Irish

National Theatre in Dublin When Ireland

finally won its true independence in 1922 he

was appointed a senator in the following year

he won the Nobel Prize of literature


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His poetry was characterized by disillusion,

bitter satire, strong symbolism and the

combination of colloquial and formal language.

There is profound beauty in his poetry.


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He wrote 26 plays and 11 volumes of poetry

but his reputation rests on his 50 years of

poetic career which falls roughly into 5 phases

of about one decade each.


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The Three Periods of His Work

1.During the 1980s he wrote chiefly in the

tradition of romanticism a leading member of

the Aesthetic movement


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2. his second period was influenced by the

Irish nationalist movement and his passion of

Maud Gonne worked with the Irish National

Theatre attempting to develop an Irish cultural

revival to complement the political movement


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3.by the second decade of the 20thc Yeats nolonger a romantic influenced by the modernistmovement

4. the fourth period was the greatest of his pcareer in his sixties he attained full maturity asa realist-symbolist-metaphysical p with anuncanny() power over words andsymbols, summing up in his poems many ofhis lifelong ideas.


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His early poetry was marked by dreamy

romanticism with clarity, imagery and

musicality. In his later years he found a

metaphysical and French simplistic approach

to poetry and wrote on the great, eternal

subject of time and change, love and age, life

and art.


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Yeats believed that all history, and life

follows a circular, spiral pattern consisting of

long cycles which repeat themselves over and

over on different levels, so symbols like

winding stairs, spinning tops, gyres and spirals

are frequent and important in his poems


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Analysis of The Second Coming

See the textbook


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Question

What does gyre mean in this poem?

What does the line things fall apart; the center

cannot hold mean?

What do the a shape with lion body and the

head of a man and the rough beast refer to?


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Discussion

At the beginning of the 21st c, what do you

think of this poem?


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Yeats and Eliot had great influence upon

modern English literature. Their principles and

wiring practice were a revolt against the

imprecise language and sentimental emotions

of the Victorian poets. This revolt led to the

modernist movement in literature..


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Three influences of modern poetry

1. Imagism

2. Metaphysical poets

3. French symbolist poetry


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Main traits of modern poetry

1. Direct treatment of things

2. Freer metrical movement (these two from Imagism)

3. High degree of intellectual complexity

4. Symbolism

5. Close to conversation (colloquial, slang)

6. Irony and puns

7. International and urban themes


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In summary

the remarkable career of W.B.Yeats,

stretching across the whole modern period,

showed how a truly great p can at the same

time reflect the varying development of his ageand maitain an unmistakably individual

accent. Yet he is always Yeats, unique and

inimitablewithout doubt the great Englishspeaking p of his age. ---from Wangs book

w.b.yeats and his poems

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