W.B. Yeats
1865-1939
Biographical Information
► “William
Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and
dramatist and one of the foremost figures of 20thcentury literature. A pillar of both the Irish and
British literary establishments, in his later years
Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms.”
► “In 1923, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in
Literature for what the Nobel Committee described
as ‘inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives
expression to the spirit of a whole nation;’ and he was
the first Irishman so honoured.”
SOURCE: <www.wikipedia.org> accessed on 30/06/09
Biographical Information
► Yeats
also collaborated with Edwin Ellis on
the first complete edition of William Blake’s
poetry and writings.
► He maintained a life-long interest in
mysticism, symbols and Irish mythology.
► Yeats was saddened and immensely moved
by the tragedy of the Great War and the
Irish Civil War.
SOURCE: <www.wikipedia.org> accessed on 30/06/09
World War One
1914-1918
► Also
known as the “Great War”
was a global military conflict that involved most
of the world's great powers assembled in two
opposing alliances: the Entente and the Central
Powers.”
► “Over 70 million military personnel were mobilized
in one of the largest wars in history.”
► “…
► In
excess of 15 million people were killed,
making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history.
SOURCE: <www.wikipedia.org> accessed on 30/06/09
World War One
1914-1918
► The
enormous death and destruction caused by
this war immensely affected Yeats.
Irish Civil War
(1922-1923)
► This
was a conflict in Ireland in 1922-1923, about
the nature of the new Irish Republic
► The conflict was waged between two opposing
groups of Irish nationalists: the forces of the new
Free State, who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty
under which the state was established, and the
Republican opposition, for whom the Treaty
represented a betrayal of the Irish Republic.
► The war was won by the Free State forces.
SOURCE: <www.wikipedia.org> accessed on 30/06/09
Irish Civil War
(1922-1923)
It was an extremely violent conflict that cost close to
4000 lives. A huge toll for the small Irish nation.
► Yeats was a passionate supporter of a free Ireland,
but was saddened by the violence.
►
An explosion near Trinity
College in Dublin
SOURCE: <www.wikipedia.org>
accessed on 30/06/09
The Wild Swans at Coole
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Reading Yeats’s Poetry
ACTIVITY
1. Read “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “The
Second Coming” by Yeats, and critically annotate
each poem using the 10 Step Grid to help you.
2. What symbol(s) dominate each poem? Explain
in your own words how Yeats uses these
symbols to convey ideas.
3. What ideas and techniques are shared between
the two poems.