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W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats. 1865-1939. Biographical Information.

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W.B. Yeats

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  1. W.B. Yeats 1865-1939

  2. Biographical Information • “William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century 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

  3. 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

  4. World War One1914-1918 • 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 peoplewere killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history. SOURCE: <www.wikipedia.org> accessed on 30/06/09

  5. World War One1914-1918 • The enormous death and destruction caused by this war immensely affected Yeats.

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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?

  11. The Second Coming Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe 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 everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.

  12. Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words outWhen a vast image out of Spiritus MundiTroubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desertA 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 itReel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

  13. Reading Yeats’s Poetry ACTIVITY • 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. • What symbol(s) dominate each poem? Explain in your own words how Yeats uses these symbols to convey ideas. • What ideas and techniques are shared between the two poems.

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