In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz Flashcards
What is the rhyme scheme of ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’ and what effect does this have?
ABBA rhyme scheme displays the two women and how they were beautiful but in different ways
How does WBY display the beauty of EGB and CM in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“both/ Beautiful, one a gazelle”
- -> “both/ Beautiful” is repeated for emphasis
- ->plosive alliteration and the words split upon two lines displays how the women were both beautiful, but in different ways
- ->The caesura increases the pace at which “one a gazelle” is said which emphasises the speed of the “gazelle”
- ->The caesura also emphasises “one” and thus displays how only one of them is like a gazelle- the difference in their beauty
How does WBY display how he feels that EGB and CM have been drawn away from him in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“raving autumn shears”
- ->”raving” displays the madness of the women, linked to “delirium of the brave”
- ->”autumn” displays the coming to an end of a cycle and thus the eventual slip away of the women from him
- ->”shears” displays how WBY feels the women has been cut away from him and that he no longer feels connected to them
How does WBY display the movement through time and the contrast of young and old in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“But a raving autumn shears/ Blossom from the summer’s wreath”
–>emphatic positioning of “Blossom” at the start of line and “wreath” (the flowers put down at a funeral) displays the movement through time towards death
“drags out lonely years” has long drawn out vowel sounds to literally hear the the length of the loneliness
–>It is the use of a transferred epithet as the years are not lonely but she lives a lonely life for years
Contrast between young and old is repeated eg. “older”, “old”, “withered old” vs “youth” and “younger”
How does WBY display that the women have different political and ideological views to Yeats in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth’?
“Some vague Utopia - and she seems, / When withered old and skeleton-gaunt/ An image of such politics”
- -> “vague Utopia” displays the hopeless ideals of the two women
- ->The dash in “vague Utopia -“ acts as an aposiopesis breaking off the futile ideal
- -> plosives in “skeleton-gaunt” display how the image of the politics they believe in is so impossible, it is no longer in existence, similar to the two dead women
How does WBY display his uncertainty over the after-life and his future in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“Dear shadows, now you know it all”
- ->WBY addresses the two women (“Dear”) and “shadows” displays the uncertain darkness they are part of (the afterlife)
- ->”now you know it all” displays how in the afterlife, the secrets of life and death are revealed and this emphasises WBY’s lack of understanding of the future
What is the context of the poem ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
- Published in 1933
- The poem is an elegy, commemorating the life and death of EGB and CM posthumously
How does WBY display the enemy as time in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“The innocent and the beautiful / Have no enemy but time;”
–>All people- including EGB and CM- wasted their lives fighting enemies with their beliefs and politics but everyones only true enemy is time
How does WBY attempt to deal with time in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
- “Arise and bid me strike a match / And strike another till time catch;”
- -> WBY hopes to set a light and make “time catch” alight in order to either burn and destroy time or as an illuminator to unveil the secrets of knowledge
How does WBY display the dangers of either destroying time or understanding it in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“Should the conflagration climb, / Run till all the sages know”
- Plosives of “conflagration climb” display the dangers of setting a fire in time as the fire will only grow
- Predominantly monosyllabic line “Run till all the sages know” quickens the pace and emphasises a sense of panic illustrated if the secrets of time got out
How does WBY display a sense of guilt at the end of ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?
“We the great gazebo built, / They convicted us of guilt”
–>”Great gazebo” can be a metaphor for the mansions built by the English settlers (WBY is of english descent) and know he has guilt for his colonialist past and where it has now left Ireland: He wishes to manipulate time in order to end his guilt, just as EGB and CM wanted to revoke their guilt through their politics & ideology
-CONTRAST TO ‘THE MAN AND THE ECHO’ WHEN YEATS WANTS TO SAVE THE ‘MANSIONS’
What is the sense of ambiguity at the end of ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’
“Bid me strike a match and blow”
- ->”blow” can be reference to either blowing up and destroying time or blowing out the match
- ->If he destroys time, he can end his guilt over Ireland; he will never have to die or witness the fall of EGB and CM
- ->However, WBY witnesses the dangers of destroying/understanding time, as it would bring about an apocalypse
–>Purposefully ambiguous to display how WBY doesn’t understand what the future holds for him
What is the structure of the poem ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’ and what effect does this have?
- Written in quatrains
- Disorderly line lengths used to exemplify the scattered nature of WBY’s memories of EGB and CM and his confusion over time
- No verb in the opening stanza, coupled with use of imagism (Ezra Pound’s theory of using images rather than actions) display the static, memory-like quality of the poem: shows a memory and thoughts rather than any forward movement
