Poetry- W.B Yeats

Question 1

Context of ‘The Stolen Child’

Answer 1

• From ‘Crossways’ 1889
• Yeats was twenty-one at the time, at the beginning of his career; it celebrates the Irish stories which his mother loved.
• The poem progresses as a journey through the country, around the town of Sligo, in Ireland. This is where Yeats spent his youth, as it is his mother’s hometown.

Question 2

Overall Message of ‘The Stolen Child’? (3)

Answer 2

-The loss of innocence- of the poet, and of Ireland- wants Ireland to return to the seemingly idyllic way it was but sees that this is unachievable and just a fantasy, like the island

→ Final stanza: rather than idealise for a way back to a previous Ireland, he seeks acceptance of the current state and searches for compromise

→ The elusiveness and misconceptions created by poetry and romanticism: The child was enticed to the island by poetry but it is all just a façade; lots of imagery that has underlying connotations of danger (and Yeats was one of the main poets to bring about the shift from romanticism to modernism)!

Question 3

How does WB Yeats display that the island is a fantasy world and separate to the real world in ‘The Stolen Child’? (2)

Answer 3

• “Where dips the rocky highland”- The land is separated from the real world and is just a fantasy
• “Wandering water gushes”- The glide alliteration of “w” sounds emphasises a sense of freedom in the land whilst the use of apophasis subtly highlights how the island is surrounded by water and there is not the freedom to return to the real world!

Question 4

How does WB Yeats display the transition between the real and fairy world in ‘The Stolen Child’?

Answer 4

• Semantic field to do with mixing between the two worlds and the transition: “Where the wave of moonlight glosses the dim grey sand with light” – Juxtaposition of “wave” and “moonlight” on either sides of the Earth (above and below us) as well as the chiaroscuro of “dim grey” and “light”
• “mingling hands and mingling glances” has repetition of “mingling” which emphasises the “mingling” between the two worlds. This line is in TETRAMETRE in comparison to the poem that is predominantly IAMBIC to display how the faeries disturb the previous metre of the poem and thus it is implied they have negative influence

Question 5

How does WB Yeats display the underlying danger of the fairy island in ‘The Stolen Child’? (7)

Answer 5

• “Flapping herons wake/ the drowsy water rat”- The seemingly idyllic image of herons wakes up Yeats to the immediate dangers of this fantasy- the “rat” has been awoken (emphasised by enjambment). Onomatopoeia of “flapping” emphasises this awakening in contrast to the typically poetic words.
• “There we’ve hid our faery vats”- the mischief and misleading nature of the faeries

-“Far off by furthest Rosses”- Heavy alliteration in this line beginning with fricative “f” sounds and becoming sibilant: foreshadowing the poem as a whole, which begins lightly and softly but underlying fears and dangers become more apparent as we go along.
“Far off” also displays the distance of this idea from reality and “from Rosses” displays the distance of this world from modern Ireland (“Rosses is a region in Ireland”) – how there’s no going back to old Ireland

-“Chase the frothy bubbles”/ “full of troubles”- The rhyme of these two lines emphasises how although coming of age leads to greater freedom (“chasing bubbles”), the real world that you grow into is “full of troubles”

• “We seek for slumbering trout/ And whispering in their ears/ Give them unquiet dreams:”- enjambment builds up tension to the outcome of the terror of “unquiet dreams”.
• ->“unquiet” juxtaposes the softness associated with “dreams” whilst also acts as an antithesis to “slumbering” and “whispering” whilst emphasising the misleading kindness of the faeries
• “unquiet dreams;” – the semi colon acts almost as an aposiopesis as WBY almost cuts off as he finally explicitly accentuates the danger of the faeries
• “Away with us he’s going”- No choice in the development of a child: we are all forced to grow up and abandon our innocence at some point

Question 6

How does WB Yeats link the image of the fairy island to Ireland in ‘The Stolen Child’?

Answer 6

“He’ll hear no more the lowing/ Of the calves on the warm hillside/ Or the kettle on the hob/ Sing peace into his breast, / Or see the brown mice bob/ Round and round the oatmeal chest”
-A return in time would lose us key practical things that we need now; the practical disadvantages of aiming to maintain our innocence and youth.
Whilst many natural elements still remain; they are just intermingled amongst the man-made goods eg. “calves on the warm hillside” and “ brown mice” – emphasises the compromise that WBY is forced to make in accepting his current state- links to modern and past Ireland

Question 7

How does the refrain of ‘The Stolen Child’ help to emphasise it’s themes? (5)

Answer 7

-“Come away, O human child!”- “Come away” appears more of a command than a question, thus forcing the child to go through the inevitable loss of innocence that occurs in every life

-“O human child!” – the use of apostrophe “O” directs the statement to the reader who becomes the “human child” in this case and is thus shown the dangers of returning to the past
“human child” separates the reader (the “human”) from the position of the “faeries”

• “To the waters and the wild” emphasises both the freedom and the dangers associated with development (“waters” and “wild”)
• “For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand”- WBY encourages the youth to savour their childhood as they are too young to “understand” the danger and pain (“weeping”) that is also in the real world

The alliteration of the “w” glide creates an enticing and poetic temptation for the child to go with the faeries- WBY uses this to emphasise the danger of poetry and the artificial and misleading enticement it creates.

Question 8

How does the last refrain of ‘The Stolen Child’ help to get it’s themes across? (1)

Answer 8

The final refrain has a different first line in that “come away” is replaced with “he comes”- this emphasises how the faeries have been successful in enticing someone to their mystic world, despite it’s dangers and hence why WBY is warning the reader of it’s danger!

Question 9

What is the form of ‘The Stolen Child’ and how does this add to it’s themes?

Answer 9

Ballad form creates a lyrical and enticing feel to the poem, highlighting it’s poetic form and thus adds to WBY’s warning of the dangers of the poetic faeries and the idyllic, poetic calls of innocence and a past Ireland

Question 10

What is the rhyme scheme of ‘The Stolen Child’ and how does it add to the themes of the poem?

Answer 10

ABABCC repeated throughout the poem emphasises how WBY decides and is tempted by both the real and faery world throughout the poem but in the end accepts the compromise he finds as he realises although he wants to change Ireland, and his own life, he cannot do it through a return to youth of himself or Ireland.

Question 11

What is the rhythm of ‘The Stolen Child’ and how does this add to the themes of the poem?

Answer 11

Predominantly iambic: the contrast of stressed and unstressed syllables also emphasises the decision between the real and fairy world, whilst adding the lyrical feel of the poem.

Question 12

What is the context of ‘September 1913’? (3)

Answer 12

• From Responsibilities, 1914
• In response to the Dublin Lock out- the largest ever Irish industrial dispute which was between 20,000 workers and 300 employers and took place from August 1913 to January 1914 and was concerning the workers desire for unionisation (ITGWN trade union) which was illegal at the time
• Also in response to the Hugh Lane Bequest after the majority of Irish people had disagreed with the movement of a number of expensive, modern art pieces to Ireland as they were considered decadent trash

Question 13

What are the overall messages of ‘September 1913’? (4)

Answer 13

• Yeats wants Ireland to have pride and not to die for violent causes
• Wants the Irish people to forget about their devotion to money or religion and unite with the common cause of Irish independence, but through democratic methods
• Lambasts modern Ireland and its lack of romanticism- deifies those who have died in the past; and wishes people were more like them
• WBY is particularly scathing of the Irish middle class and catholic bourgeoisie

Question 14

How does WBY emphasise the importance of money to people, rather than Irish independence, in ‘September 1913’? (2)

Answer 14

-“fumble in a greasy till’- people are gaining so much money they have to grease their cash registers: WBY questions the priorities of the people

• “add the halfpence to the pence”- People priorities lie in money rather than in pride of Ireland.
• ->In Irish mythology, Irishmen had to pay a halfpenny to enter the after-life: WBY suggests that the people are saving so much; they are beginning to save for death!

Question 15

How does WBY emphasise the importance of religion to people, rather than Irish independence in ‘September 1913’? (2)

Answer 15

• “And prayer to shivering prayer”: the effect of prayers are now wearing off and becoming increasingly thin, causing “shivering”. The use of “And” adds the feeling of a rant to the poem as Yeats uses syndetic listing (“But fumble in a greasy till/ And add the halfpence to the pence/ And prayer to shivering prayer”
• “But little time had they to pray”- WBY satirises modern Ireland’s catholic bourgeoisie in comparison to the heroes of Ireland’s past

“For men were born to pray and save:”- Ironic as Ireland have become boring and anti-romantic- all they care about is praying and saving up money OR “save” could be used to mean “save” Ireland and the Irish people, and he’s saying that rather than just “praying”, people should set about saving Ireland and the Irish people

Question 16

How does WBY emphasise that the life of Ireland has been sucked away and removed in ‘September 1913’?

Answer 16

• “You have dried the marrow from the bone?”- The life and soul of Ireland has been sucked away by the British values of wealth and religion (Napoleon called the British a “nation of shopkeepers”)
• “And what, God help us, could they save?”- WBY again satirises the Irish dependence on God, and question- due to this dependence, and a general lack of romanticism- what did the heroes of Irish past really have to save? (Also has subtle pun of ‘saving’ money)

-“For this that all that blood was shed,/ For this Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone”- The use of syndetic listing emphasises WBY’s anger at the current state of Ireland given the sacrifice of Fitzgerald, Emmet and Tone.
The word “this” is stressed to emphasise Yeats’ disgust that the heroes died for “this” Ireland

Question 17

How does WBY display the difference between the Irish heroes and the modern Irish people in ‘September 1913’?

Answer 17

• “Yet they were of a different kind”- These people that WBY is about to speak of were different from the people now- “kind” suggests that the people that Ireland are producing has changed and the race or “kind” is now also “different”
• “The names that stilled your childish play”- These people have been around for so long they were household names and legends even when the current generation were children AND the current actions of the Irish is “childish” in comparison to the magnificent actions of the heroes of the past
• “They have gone about the world like wind”- Not only are these heroes well known but they are Romantic heroes and have become part of the nature of Ireland- part of the “wind”

Question 18

How does WBY illustrate the futility of modern Ireland in ‘September 1913’? (3)

Answer 18

-“Was it for this the wild geese spread/ The grey wing upon every tide; ”- “wild geese” was an Irish colloquial term for the Irish soldiers who travelled away to fight for European armies- as the Irish soldiers went to fight in WW1 despite Ireland not being involved in the war
“grey wing” has both words stressed to emphasise the feeling of flight or soaring and thus accentuate WBY’s feeling of the loss of Irish troops

-“For this that all that blood was shed,/ For this Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone”- The use of syndetic listing emphasises WBY’s anger at the current state of Ireland given the sacrifice of Fitzgerald, Emmet and Tone.
The word “this” is stressed to emphasise Yeats’ disgust that the heroes died for “this” Ireland

-“All that delirium of the brave?” – WBY questions the motives of the “brave” revolutionaries
“delirium” also questions whether the brave were just mad and wouldn’t have rationally done what they did OR that this “delirium” was the sort of Romantic ideal that Irish people lack today OR that the bravery of the revolutionaries is only considered a result of “delirium” now Yeats has witnessed what they were fighting for.

Question 19

What is the reference to Cathleen ni Hoolihan in ‘September 1913’ and what is the significance of this?

Answer 19

• “Yet could we turn the years again, / And call those exiles as they were / In all their loneliness and pain, / You’d cry, ‘some woman’s yellow hair / Has maddened every mother’s son:’ ”
• ->“Exiles” and “loneliness” emphasises the romanticism of the heroes in comparison to their modern compatriots
• ->Yeats highlights how the people of today cannot connect with the heroes of the past as they claim that the heroes have been “maddened”

-The allusion to Kathleen ni Hoolihan in “some woman’s yellow hair” is a play by WBY about the spirit of Ireland Kathleen ni Hoolihan, who had blonde hair, and encouraged men to go out and fight.
“yellow” satirises the blonde hair and emphasises the overreaction of the people to any form of artistic expression and romanticism, whilst WBY emphasises the Irish people’s fear of truly standing up for anything important in their country

-Link to ‘The Man and the Echo’ in
“Did that play of mine send out
Certain men the English shot?”

Question 20

What is the refrain of ‘September 1913’ and how does it emphasise the themes of the poem?

Answer 20

“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, / It’s with O’leary in the grave”

-WBY emphasises how he feels Ireland has lost its romanticism and has lost it’s priorities of what is important.
WBY highlights how since all the remains of a Romantic Ireland lies with O’leary- one of the revolutionaries- in the grave.

Question 21

What is the final refrain of ‘September 1913’ and how does it emphasise the themes of the poem?

Answer 21

• Final refrain: “But let them be, they’re dead and gone, / They’re with O’leary in the grave.”
• WBY feels he has no choice but to leave Ireland be as he can not overcome the masses on his own; after all, all he believes Ireland stood for is now in the grave- WBY attempts to make Irish readers feel guilty for their lack of action.

Question 22

What is the rhyme scheme of ‘September 1913’ and how does it illustrate the themes of the poem?

Answer 22

Constant ABAB rhyme scheme helps to exemplify the tone of a rant that WBY is trying to get across and helps to emphasise the last word of each line, thus creating emphatic positioning of words such as “pray”, “save”, “grave” etc.

Question 23

How does the structure and form of ‘September 1913’ accentuate the themes of the poem?

Answer 23

Fixed, clean structure emphasises WBY clear and fixed intent in the poem. Also helps to satirise how Yeats thinks the reader will enjoy a simpler, less experimental literature.

Question 24

What is the context of ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’? (2)

Answer 24

• From the Wild Swans at Coole, 1919, following the end of WWI in 1918
• Supposedly narrated by Robert Gregory- the son of Lady Gregory, a close friend of WBY- who had died fighting in WWI despite Ireland not being involved in the war

Question 25

What are the overall messages of ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’?

Answer 25

It is better to die heroically than live an ordinary, yet purposeless life

The balance of life and death, and the seemingly smooth transition between life and death

WBY’s admiration of heroism but dislike for violence (link with Easter 1916)

Question 26

What are the quotes in ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ to display the ambiguity of the airman over his decision? (1)

Answer 26

“I know that” vs “somewhere” highlights the contrast in WBY’s emotions and WBY’s confusion at the clarity of his feelings: “I know” is certain whilst “somewhere” is vague

“somewhere among the clouds above;” – “clouds above” implies a movement into the afterlife and “above” emphasises that he is on the ground when narrating this and predicting his own death: it becomes part of his decision making in going to war
This line also has a reversed foot from the 1st line to emphasise the contrast between “somewhere” and “I know” (line above) and the contrast of certainty and ambiguity of his decision

Question 27

How does WBY emphasise the importance of emotion and the importance of choosing with your heart rather than head in the poem ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ ? (2 quotes + analysis)

Answer 27

• “Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, / Nor public man, nor cheering crowds” – asyndetic listing emphasises how no external factors influenced his decision in fighting in the war; rather it was purely a personal decision, based on emotion rather than rational thought
• WBY also forces the reader to question what causes him to “fight” and what in fact causes anyone to use violence or actually “fight”

-“Nor public man, nor cheering crowds / a lonely impulse of delight”
The antithesis between “crowds” and “lonely” further adds to the sense of balance felt throughout the poem

-“A lonely impulse of delight/ Drove to this tumult in the clouds; “ – emphasises how the “impulse of delight” is what sent him to the “clouds” and the afterlife: that moment of impulse of emotion is what causes his eventual death

• “Drove to this tumult of the clouds;” – A dactylic line emphasises the change that follows this line: the semi-colon acts as a volta between what happened previous in the poem and what follows
• ->The lack of personal pronouns in this section emphasises this a group of men that WBY idolises: the group of heroic men who die with honour
• ->“drove” feels sudden and impulsive, like an instinct or emotion

Question 28

How does WBY display the airman’s devotion to Ireland in ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’? (2 quotes)

Answer 28

“My country is Kiltartan Cross, / my countrymen Kiltartan’s poor”- Anaphora of “my country” to add balance again
“Kiltartan” can be used as a synechdoche for the whole Ireland to represent how the airman is in support of Ireland over all else.

-“Those that I fight I do not hate/ Those that I guard I do not love”- the use of anaphora of “those that I” and epistrophe in “I do not” helps to balance the two lines as RG again balances his opinions on his future and his beliefs- his only love is pure, assertive and single: that for Ireland.

Question 29

What quote displays the balance made by the airman in ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’? (1 long quote + analysis)

Answer 29

• “I balanced all, brought all to mind, / The years to come seem waste of breath, / A waste of breath the years behind/ In balance with this life, this death”
• ->“balance” explicitly emphasises the balance searched for throughout the poem
• ->Chiasmus ABCCBA of “balanced” , “years to come”, “waste of breath”, “waste of breath”, “years behind”, “balance” – this chiasmus, with “balance” emphatically positioned at the start and end of the chiasmus emphasises how RG balances everything to come to the decision as whether to fight.
• ->The BCCB of “The years to come seemed waste of breath, / A waste of breath the years behind/ In balance with this life, this death” – emphasises how in balance with the heroic life of a soldier (“this” life” he is choosing, and “this death”), all else is a waste of time.

–>“In balance with this life, this death” – the use of “balance” coupled with the chiasmus ABBA of “this life, this death” nicely completes RG’s thought process of why to go to war: the life and death of a soldier makes any other life seem like a waste of time- WBY also agrees with this in promoting heroism.

Question 30

How does the rhyme scheme of ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ illustrate the themes of the poem?

Answer 30

Rhyme Scheme:
Strong and persistent ABAB helps Yeats to get across his message whilst also emphasising the balance between heroism and violence; life and death etc.

Question 31

How does the rhythm and metre of the poem accentuate the themes of the poem ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death?

Answer 31

The constant iambic tetrameter emphasises the two parts (stressed and unstressed, in four feet) and thus the balance, purpose and element of fate within the poem

Question 32

How does the Form & Structure illustrate the themes of ‘An Irish Airman’?

Answer 32

Form- Stretched sonnet of 14 lines to highlight how Gregory plans to do more and stretch the boundaries of an ordinary life by being heroic
Structure- one continuous stanza displays the lack of thought and moreover the defining presence of emotion in his decision making process.

Question 33

What is the context of ‘Leda and the Swan’? (2)

Answer 33

• Retelling of a story from Greek mythology of the rape of a girl, Leda, by Zeus, whom had taken the form of a Swan.
• Written in 1923, published 1928

Question 34

What are the overall messages of ‘Leda and the Swan’? (3)

Answer 34

• The english control and oppression of Ireland
• How sometimes violence can be the spark of a revolution or change
• WBY’s questioning and query of the future and the implications of small actions today on the future of Ireland

Question 35

How does WBY describe the swan as harsh and violent in ‘Leda and the Swan’? (3)

Answer 35

• “A sudden blow:” - “blow” is onomatepeaic to display violence whilst colon caesura heightens the sense of surprise felt
• “great wings beating”- “beating” is harsh and violent verb

“dark webs”- sinister description of the swan- with spider like and terrifying tendencies

-References to England as a brutish and oppressive tormentor of Ireland

Question 36

How does WBY represent Leda’s opposition to the Swan and how does this link to Ireland in ‘Leda and the Swan’? (3)

Answer 36

“He holds her helpless breast upon his breast”- contrast of soft “h” alliteration and plosive “b” alliteration displays the vulnerability of Leda (Ireland) in comparison to the mighty Zeus (England)

-“How can those terrified vague fingers push”- displays a weak and weathered response from the Irish to British occupation

“loosening thighs”- displays a passive acceptance from the Irish people of British occupation

Question 37

How are caesuras used to add emphasis in ‘Leda and the Swan’?

Answer 37

Copious and repetitive caesuras are used to break up the flow of the poem to display Ledas (and Irelands) subtle and overall minimal and inconsequential resistance to the English dominance of them

Question 38

What is the allusion to the fall of Troy and what is the implicit of this in ‘Leda and the Swan’? (1 quote + 2 interpretations)

Answer 38

“The broken wall, the burning roof and tower/ And Agamemnon dead”

–>”The broken wall, the burning tower and roof” can be metaphors of sex through “broken wall” illustrating the violation of Leda and the “tower” acting as a phallic representation: displaying how this rape and act of violence will lead to disastrous consequences (“And Agamemnon dead”
OR
-“The broken wall, the burning roof and tower” can be accentuating the fall of an empire, in this case the British, and thus accentuating how sometimes an act of violence is needed for a revolution to take place

Question 39

How does WBY emphasise the importance of emotion and impulse in ‘Leda and the Swan’? (2 quotes)

Answer 39

• “white rush”- rush of blood to the head emphasises how a sudden impulse encouraged Leda, and WBY
• “the brute blood of the air”: displays that it was something in the air and a particular feeling in the moment that inspired her

–> : the same sudden impulse that has caused needless violence in the past such as in Easter 1916 or that has led to greatness such as “lonely impulse of delight” in An Irish Airman

Question 40

How does WBY question knowledge and understanding of the future in ‘Leda and the Swan’? (1 quote + 2 analysis pieces)

Answer 40

“Did she put on his knowledge with his power/ Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?”

–>WBY questions whether Leda knew of the future implications of her rape at the time that it happened as he himself is constantly questioning the current actions in Ireland as the future consequences

• WBY emphasises how Leda took knowledge, education and awareness from her rape ordeal: all characterisitics needed for a succesful revolution
• ->The same way that WBY took knowledge and understanding of events in Ireland to be able to write this poem and get a message out (link to the cat & the moon)

Question 41

How does WBY question the importance of faith in ‘Leda and the Swan’?

Answer 41

-WBY allows us to question our own beliefs: Is an intimate moment (“caressed”) with a divine figure actually a good thing? At what point do we devote ourselves too closely our faiths and beliefs? link to Sept. 1913- is divinity our source of oppression?

Question 42

What is the form and structure off ‘Leda and the Swan’ and what is it’s significance?

Answer 42

The poem is a sonnet- traditional fourteen line poem in Iambic pentameter

There is a separation between first 8 lines (octet) and last six lines (sestet)- the volta, and dividing line is the ejaculation- “a shudder in the loin”- emphasising the build up to the rape and the consequences after it

Question 43

What is the rhyme scheme of ‘Leda and the Swan’ and what is its significance?

Answer 43

• ABABCDCDEFGEFG

- displays the contrast between the violence and non-violence: the conflict between acceptance and suppression

Question 44

Context of ‘Broken Dreams’?

Answer 44

• Poem published following WBY’s last proposal to Maud Gonne
• WBY aged 52 years when the poem was published
• Published in 1919
• John MacBride, Maud Gonne’s estranged husband had been executed in 1916 following the Easter Rising

Question 45

What are the overall message and themes of ‘Broken Dreams’? (3)

Answer 45

• The nature of the afterlife
• Ageing and the fear of death
• Time
• The effect on unrequited love on the perception of the above three

Question 46

How does WBY describe Maud Gonne in the opening lines of ‘Broken Dreams’ and how does this affect our perception of her? (2)

Answer 46

“There is grey in your hair”

“young men no longer catch their breath/ When you are passing”

Both passages display MG in a negative way, which amplify her beauty in later passages (by displaying her flaws, he emphasises her past beauty)–> “passing” can be passing through time as well to show how she WAS beautiful but is no more

Question 47

What is the semantic field to do with religion in ‘Broken Dreams’ and what does this illustrate? (3)

Answer 47

“blessing” ; “prayer”; “Heaven”

Displays how WBY was so religiously devoted to MG but now his faith has been broken

Question 48

How does WBY display his unrequited and overwhelming love for MG in ‘Broken Dreams’?

Answer 48

“For your sole sake - that all heart’s ache have known”

Both “sole sake” and “heart’s ache” are repeated in the stanza displaying how WBY feels MG’s purpose was to be loved but not return his love, and thus be recorded in poem (link to Cat and the Moon)

“Burdensome beauty - for your sole sake”
plosive “b” and sibilant “s” sounds displays the extent of the pain felt by WBY for MG

Question 49

How does WBY display MG’s change over time in ‘Broken Dreams’?

Answer 49

• Shift from “girlhood” in the first stanza to “womanhood” in third stanza and “last stroke of midnight” in final stanza
• “Young men no longer catch their breath/ When you are passing”- “passing” can be reference to her time passing and the passing of her life (death)

Question 50

How does WBY describe his memories of MG in ‘Broken Dreams’ and what effect does this have?

Answer 50

“Vague memories, nothing but memories.”
REPEATED- ALWAYS END STOPPED
–> The memories have become vague meaning that his memory of her when young or old have blended (link to Among School children), leaving her as a permanent symbol of beauty despite the current “grey” in her hair
–> “nothing but memories” displays there is no forward movement for WBY from here and he has no purpose in the present or future: MG was his “sole sake” as well!
–>”memories” as an epistrophe and end stopped line displays how the memories of MG is all he has approaching the end of his life and they are the last thing he will cherish

Question 51

How does WBY display his change over time and his perception of MG over time in ‘Broken Dreams’?

Answer 51

“But in the grave all, all, shall be renewed”

• -> displays how in the afterlife he has the chance to witness MG’s beauty in its essence again
• -> assonance “all,all,shall” displays how he cant wait for all to be rediscovered

“the fervour of my youthful eyes, / Has set me muttering like a fool”
–> displays how WBY was a “fool” for believing in the past that he had a chance with MG : “youthful” rhyme with “fool”

Question 52

What does WBY claim is MG’s flaw in ‘Broken Dreams’ and what is the significance of this?

Answer 52

“And yet your body had a flaw/ Your small hands were not beautiful”

• -> By having an imperfection, it separates her from angels and makes her the most beautiful human (“you are more beautiful than any one”)
• -> WBY suggests she is missing something from her hand, could be implying she lacks his wedding ring (reference to Wild Swans @ Coole “broken rings”)

Question 53

How does WBY display that MG is the most beautiful HUMAN (separation from angels) in ‘Broken Dreams’?

Answer 53

“your body had a flaw” - separates her from the perfect angels, yet leaves her human- and a beautiful human

“In that mysterious, always brimming lake […] leave unchanged/ the hands that I have kissed” - reference to the river Lethe in Greek Mythology (link to Leda & Swan) in which humans go to forget the pains of human life- WBY doesn’t want her to step out of the lake as at that point she will be in the afterlife and no longer be as comparatively beautiful

Question 54

How does WBY display the end of his life in the final stanza of ‘Broken Dreams’?

Answer 54

“The last stroke of midnight dies/ All day in the one chair”

-Displays how it is the start of a new day and era and it is coming to the end of WBY’s life

Question 55

How does WBY use romantic irony in ‘Broken Dreams’ and what is the effect of it?

Answer 55

“All day in the one chair/ From dream to dream and rhyme to rhyme I have ranged/ In rambling talk”

“rhyme to rhyme” and “rambling talk” display self awareness of the poem and display how all his dreams have been set out in his poem and now his memory of MG’s beauty has been eternalised in his poetry

Question 56

What is the end of the poem ‘Broken Dreams’ and how does this emphasise what WBY is trying to get across?

Answer 56

“an image of air:/ Vague memories, nothing but memories”

–> the thin and scarce “air” of memories he has had of MG have no been imprinted and eternalised on his page- now all his image of her beauty is within the poem (link to sailing to byzant)

Question 57

How does the structure of ‘Broken Dreams’ affect its message?

Answer 57

• The poem is broken into 5 stanzas to emphasise how the dream WBY set out on paper has literally been broken
• The varying length of the 5 stanzas coupled with enjambment adds to the stream of consciousness “rambling talk” feel of the poem

Question 58

What is the context of ‘The Cat and The Moon’?

Answer 58

• Published in 1919 as part of ‘The Wild Swans At Coole’

- Alludes to Plato’s ‘one out of two’ parable about how human’s are constantly searching for their other half

Question 59

What is the significance of the title: ‘The Cat and The Moon’?

Answer 59

-Two things that are seemingly so different are linked in the way of the title and this immediately displays a connection between them
Can be a metaphor for:
Maud and Yeats
All the separate components of nature
The poem and the poet

–> link to the man and the echo & among schoolchildren!

Question 60

What evidence is there to show that the cat represents WBY in ‘The Cat and The Moon’? (1)

Answer 60

“The cat went here and there”

–>”here” displays to where WBY is and “there” displays away from the poet- this very personal description of direction implies the poet is the cat

Question 61

What is the link to the occult in the poem ‘The Cat and The Moon’? (2)

Answer 61

“spun round like a top”
–>represents WBY’s theory of gyres

“The Moon” is closely linked to the cycles of Earth

Chiasmus ABBA “round”, “crescent”, “crescent”, “round” displays changing cycles

–> WBY’s belief in this occult emphasises his belief that all things in nature are somehow linked

Question 62

How does WBY explicitly display the link between between the cat in the moon in ‘The Cat and The Moon’? (2)

Answer 62

“the nearest kin of the moon”

“two close kindred”

Question 63

What are the overall messages and the key themes of ‘The Cat and The Moon’?

Answer 63

• WBY’s relationship and link with Maud Gonne
• Mutability and change (a key romantic theme)
• Similarities and the links of things in nature

Question 64

What are the quotations that suggest that ‘The Cat and The Moon’ is referencing the relationship between a poet and a poem? (6)

Answer 64

“Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon” AND “moonlit”
–> “stared” displays how the moon provides the subject of the poem (observation) for the cat (poet): whether the moon represents Maud (link to Broken dreams and writing poem) or simply a source of awakening light, it provides inspiration for the poem

“delicate feet”- romantic irony to the careful use of metrical feet within poetry

“dance” (repeated) is an art form just like poetry

“A new dance turn”- this acts as the “turn” (volta) in the poem as up to this point, the cat attempts to teach the Moon a dance, but after this point the cat realises he must adjust himself to truly link with the moon

“his pupils will pass from change to change” - the students of WBY’s will change but they will experience the same message WBY is trying to get across, and thus he eternalises his message

Question 65

How is there a reference made to MG’s and WBY’s relationship in ‘The Cat and The Moon’?

Answer 65

“What better than call a dance?” displays how WBY attempts to woo and entice MG

“he lifts to the moon his changing eyes” displays a new, “changing” outlook and that he cannot simply seduce MG- realised that she is inaccessible?

Question 66

How does WBY metaphorically display the similarity between the cat and moon (WBY & MG) in ‘The Cat and The Moon’?

Answer 66

“Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils/ Will pass from change to change, / And that from round to crescent, / From crescent to round they range?”
–> even if some components are not aware of it, things in nature are linked as the eyes of the cat display the cycles of the moon

Chiasmus ABBA “round”, “crescent”, “crescent”, “round” displays their link

“And lifts to the changing moon/ His changing eyes” - repetition of “changing” but in cat and moon displays link between the cat and moon- subtle reference that they are both changing and wby realises he may not ever be successful in pursuing MG

Question 67

How does WBY display change and mutability (a key romantic theme) in his poem ‘The Cat and The Moon’ and what is it’s effect?

Answer 67

“A new dance turn” acts as a volta and a change in the Cat’s outlook

“his pupils will pass from change to change”- what he witnesses and his perception will change

“the changing moon” - MG is changing and as is WBY’s perception of her- perhaps WBY is starting to accept that he wont be able to be with her, despite his feeling that they are linked

Question 68

How does WBY displays secrets and knowledge of nature in his poem ‘The Cat and The Moon’?

Answer 68

“in the grass” and “through the grass” displays how the cat is hidden and emphasises the hidden, and secret mysteries of life

“alone, important and wise” - the tricolon displays how the cat (WBY=the poet) has knowledge that others seek to understand eg. the meanings of his poem

–>Displays not only the hidden messages of the poem that only WBY truly knows but also the secrets of nature and it’s links that WBY feels he understands

Question 69

How does the metre of the poem ‘The Cat and The Moon’ affect its meaning?

Answer 69

3 feet per line apart from the last line makes the poem move like a slow waltz (a “dance”) and display how WBY attempted to entice MG

Question 70

How does the rhythm and timing of ‘The Cat and The Moon’ affect its meaning?

Answer 70

The lines vary in syllables but have the same timing to display how although things appear different, they are more similar than it seems

Question 71

What is the context of The Second Coming?

Answer 71

Written in 1920

-Written shortly after the end of the Great War 1918 and after the Russian Revolution 1917

Question 72

What are the differences between the first and second stanza in ‘The Second Coming’?

Answer 72

Stanza 1:

• End of a cycle and displaying how things are falling apart
• Lacks a clear rhythm as anarchy is being unleashed
• No rhyme scheme displays the anarchy whilst half rhymes display the coming of a new age

Stanza 2:
A prophetic vision of the future:
-Iambic tetrameter becomes more prominent towards the end of the stanza as it provides the sound of the thumping sphinx approaching along with the new age
-A sonnet of 14 lines but not split by the usual octet and sestet but rather by 9 and 5 lines and also not about love–> displays the overcoming of traditional values and the establishment of a new world order

Question 73

What are the overall messages of ‘The Second Coming’? (2)

Answer 73

• The start of a new gyre/era/ cycle of time

- The rise of the anti-christ and a new evil will be unleashed upon the world

Question 74

What are the quotations that display the arrival of a new era in ‘The Second Coming’? (1)

Answer 74

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre”- opening line of the poem explicitly states the movement through the gyre

Question 75

How does WBY display the evil being unleashed on the world in ‘The Second Coming’? (1)

Answer 75

“The blood-dimmed tide is loose” - displays all the deaths as a result of WW1, Easter Rising and Russian Revolution
–>Compound word “blood-dimmed” emphasises how “blood” is overcoming everything

Question 76

How does WBY display the anarchy and revolution of the new era in ‘The Second Coming’? (3)

Answer 76

“the centre cannot hold” - the centre of society and what holds society together such as religion and politics is unable to control the world any longer

“The falcon cannot hear the falconer;”

• ->displays how people are being led of track and influenced away from goodness AND also displays moving away from traditional heritage with new culture emerging
• ->use of dissonance on separation of “falcon” and “falconer” highlights the instability

“mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”

“The ceremony of innocence is drowned” - a symbol of organisation (“ceremony”) is “drowned” out and overcome by anarchy

Question 77

How is the contrast of the good of the current cycle contrasted with the evil of the new cycle in ‘The Second Coming’? (2)

Answer 77

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity”
–> displays how the good do nothing to help whilst the bad do everything to get across their beliefs

“indignant desert birds” makes reference to vultures who are scavengers of dead bodies and emphasises the number of the dead–> contrast with the falcon in the first stanza

Question 78

What biblical references are made in ‘The Second Coming’ and what are the effects of these? (4)

Answer 78

“Surely some revelation is at hand; / Surely the second coming is at hand.”

• ->Christs second coming as of the book of revelation
• ->the anaphora, epistrophe and exclamatory tone gives it a feeling of an incantation or prayer

“sands of the desert” - Where Jesus was tempted by the devil. Where the devil resides and is coming from to the world

“rocking cradle” gives reference to the birth of baby christ like the birth of this new anti-christ

“slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” - the re-birth of Christ as in the Book of Revelation though “slouches” shows evil tendencies and question mark displays WBY’s hope that this is merely a theory

Question 79

What are the mystical references of the coming of an anti-christ made in ‘The Second Coming’? (2)

Answer 79

“The darkness drops again” - the coming of darkness over the world= references to evil

“A shape with lion body and the head of a man” - represents the sphinx which displays both the strength and valour of a lion and the intellect of man; thus superior to man

Question 80

How does WBY display the conflict between the people of the world and the gods in ‘The Second Coming’?

Answer 80

“Spiritus Mundi/ troubles my sight” - The spirit of the world makes WBY fearful as mankind makes up the spirit of the world and our actions have been extremely negative (violence & murder)

• ->Rather, WBY prefers the ‘Spiritus Sancti’- the spirit of the gods, that cannot be influenced by the treachery of man
• -> Hence, WBY fears that the reincarnation of Jesus that we will receive will be- rather than the blessful one we expect- the one we deserve for our violent and careless actions

Question 81

What’s the context of ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 81

• From ‘Responsibilities, 1914’

- Written when WBY realised that Maud Gonne would probably never accept him

Question 82

How does the poem ‘The Cold Heaven’ display WBY confusion over the afterlife and destiny?

Answer 82

• the use of an oxymoron in the title ‘The Cold Heaven’

“Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven” - the “rook” is a crow - a bird associated with death - “cold” and “delighting” are an antithesis which further emphasises WBY’s confusion

“Confusion of the death-bed” displays how WBY is so afraid of death and the afterlife as he has now lost his eternal love, Gonne, so has nothing to cling to in the afterlife.

“when the ghost begins to quicken” emphasises WBY’s fear at the coming of death and how it appears to getting closer to him

Question 83

How are WBY feelings concerning Maude Gonne shown in ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 83

“stricken/ by the injustice of the skies for punishment”- WBY feels fate has done him no favours and is angry at nature and the way of the world: he doesn’t want to spend eternity without Gonne; he has now lost his paper.

“I took all the blame out of all sense and reason”- WBY removes all rational thought from himself as he blames reason for his failure to unite himself with Gonne (he believes in the fate of the star crossed lovers) so he is left only with pure emotion, which he can put down on paper
Repetition of “all” accentuates WBY’s feeling of loss

Question 84

What references are made to Shakespeare ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 84

“with the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago”- “hot blood of youth” emphasises how Yeats was more lively and energetic in his youth, when he believed he had a chance with Gonne; now he is “cold” and dire
“love crossed long ago” emphasises how the chance of them coming together was lost “long ago” OR could make allusion to Shakespeare’s “star-crossed lovers” (Romeo & Juliet) and how WBY feels they were meant for each other
“with the hót blóod of yóuth, of lóve cróssed lóng agó” – pseudo volta with awkward spondaic metre on the vowel sounds: this acts to split the poem

Question 85

How is WBY overwhelming emotions and heartbreak shown in ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 85

“ice burned and was but the more ice”- oxymoron of “ice burned” emphasises the pain Yeats feels and how they are coming from two different sources: heartbreak and fear of death
“was but the more ice” highlights how Yeats feels no way out and that no matter how much pain he experiences “burns”, there will yet be more “ice”

“imagination and heart were driven/ so wild”- “imagination”, “heart”, “driven” and “wild” all emphasise how WBY feels he has no control and his emotions were just taking over- contrast with “cold” and with his idea of being trapped and surrounded by ice

Question 86

How are WBY feelings of loss shown in ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 86

“every casual thought of that and this/ vanished” – all “casualness” and emotion has been “driven” from him
“vanished” is emphatically positioned at the start of the line to emphasise how not only did his casual thoughts and emotions vanish but as did his hopes of love and of heaven

“vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season”- “left but memories” emphasises how WBY has lost all sense of purpose for the present or future and the idea of a future eternity means nothing to him: the only thing important to him is the memories he shares of time he had hope of being with Gonne.
“should be out of season” emphasises the end of a cycle of his hope of being with Gonne; the end of his life and his facing of death; and implications of out of the mating season, so Gonne is no longer an option to be with him

“I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro”- following WBY’s loss of all rational thought, he then lets out all emotion- leaving him empty, naked and “cold”
like “all sense and reason”, the tricolon and polysndetic listing (“and”) illustrates how WBY feels he has lost so much
The feet of each line of the poem climbs and falls between 5,6 and 7 feet on each line, emphasising the “rocked to and fro” motion

“sent/ out naked” – WBY feels that now he has been drained of emotion and rational thought, he is “naked”
Feels that he will leave life as he entered it, “naked” and confused like a baby, having achieved nothing throughout life

Question 87

What does the line “Riddled with light” exemplify in ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 87

• how WBY feels that all good in nature (“light”) is in fact a façade that is confusing and riddling man- he questions the goodness of heaven, and of the afterlife (“light”)

Question 88

What word shows the crux of the poem in ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 88

“Ah!” acts as the crux of the poem; an apostrophe to the reader, and what follows is the climax of the poem

Question 89

What is the structure, form and rhyme scheme of the poem ‘The Cold Heaven’?

Answer 89

• One stanza of free verse mixed with an Alexandrine to emphasise WBY’s confusion as to whether fate prevails or his life is made up of his own choices (fixed Alexandrine vs free verse)
• Large amounts of enjambment and the irregularity of line lengths make the poem feel like a trail of thought
• The reduced sonnet (with the last two lines without a rhyming couplet) display how his love to Maud was never fully achieved and how his questions on the afterlife can never be fully answered
• Alternate rhyme scheme (ABAB) emphasises the contrast between life and death, and unrequited love compared with unreturned love
• Abundance of feminine rhymes (eg. “reason” and “season”) and lack of masculine rhymes display that, although the poem appears about death”, MG and WBY’s love for her is also a pressing component of the poem

Question 90

How does WBY allude to the oracle of Delphi in ‘The Man and the Echo’ and what is the impact of this?

Answer 90

“In a cleft that’s christened Alt”

“That broad noon has never lit”
–>The place where the oracle in Deplhi was had supposedly never seen light

“And shout a secret to the stone.”

–>displays how WBY was seeking answers and understanding about life and the future

Question 91

How does WBY appear to doubt the purpose and achievements of his life in ‘The Man and the Echo’?

Answer 91

“All that I have said and done, / Now that I am old and ill, / Turns into a question till”

–> Now that WBY is dying he questions what he has done throughout his life and what has been the purpose of it?

–>Monosyllabic lines “All that I have said and done, / Now that I am old and ill,” creates the sense of a stutter as he questions the purpose and achievements of his life

Question 92

How does WBY emphasise his search for answers in ‘The Man and the Echo’?

Answer 92

The reference to seeking the oracle of Delphi (“shout a secret to the stone”)

AND, “I lie awake night after night/ And never get the answers right.”

AND, repetition of “pursue” in 2nd stanza to show his obsession with finding the answers

Question 93

How does WBY display that he feels the actions of his life were evil and wrong in ‘The Man and The Echo’? (3)

Answer 93

“Did that play of mine send out/ Certain men the English shot?” - Allusion to ‘Cathleen ni Hoolihan’ and it’s suspected role in the Easter rising and the subsequent executions of the Irish revolutionaries

“Did words of mine put too great stain/ On that women’s reeling brain”?- alluding to Margot Collis- a mentally unstable writer who had an affair with WBY and edited her writing: when he broke it off with her, her mental health issues were compounded and she eventually committed suicide

“Could my spoken words have checked/ That whereby a house lay wrecked?” - WBY questions whether his influence as a poet and senator could have saved any of the mansions that were destroyed, such as Coole Park

–>Repeated use of rhetorical question displays WBY’s total uncertainty and introspection at the actions of his life

Question 94

How does WBY display his avoidance of death in ‘The Man and The Echo’ and what affect does this have? (1)

Answer 94

repetition of “shirk” to display how movement away from death and the themes of death he alludes to earlier in the poem

Question 95

How does WBY display his actions cannot be atoned for at the end of his life in ‘The Man and The Echo’? (1)

Answer 95

“Nor can there be work so great/ As that which cleans man’s dirty slate.”

–>If WBY does not believe he can atone for his actions, what are the purposes of the writing of the poem: A confession?

Question 96

How does WBY display the contrast between mind and body and what effect does this carry in ‘The Man and The Echo’? (2)

Answer 96

“While man can still his body keep/ Wine or love drug him to sleep,”
–>although WBY’s body remains for the moment, the course of the poem has degraded WBY’s mind- emphasised by predominantly monosyllabic quote

“Has body and it’s stupidity” vs “And till his intellect grows sure”
–>Displays how WBY knows his body will eventually fail him but he needs to collect his thoughts and master his mind before death (find the answers etc.) -link to Sailing to Byzantium “It knows not what it is” the body doesnt understand it’s significance and will eventually crumble

Question 97

What are the religious references in ‘The Man and The Echo’?

Answer 97

“Then stands in judgement on his soul”

–>displays his questioning of the afterlife

Question 98

What is the rhyme scheme of ‘The Man and the Echo’ and what affect does it have?

Answer 98

AABB rhyme scheme displays the contrast between life and death, and the man and the echo- although they are all connected and linked (rhyming COUPLETS): both A and B are part of the rhyme scheme and the poem itself

Question 99

What is the context of ‘The Man and The Echo’?

Answer 99

Written and published in 1938, a year before WBY’s death

Question 100

What is the form and structure of ‘The Man and The Echo’?

Answer 100

Split between the man and the echo emphasises the differences between them and between life and death, but they are intrinsically linked as they come within the same poem

Question 101

Rhythm and metre of ‘The Man and The Echo’ and it’s effect?

Answer 101

• Written in trochaic tetrameter

- Slow pace of poem displays WBY’s self questioning and reluctant move towards death

Question 102

What is the context of ‘The Fisherman’?

Answer 102

• From The Wild Swans At Coole 1919
• WBY saw a fisherman sometime in the past who was one with nature, and believes that all Irish people should aspire to this image rather than to consumerist and extravagant
• Against modern Ireland and for traditional Ireland
• Connemara in the West of Ireland and WBY was critical of the ‘commoners’ living in the east, such as Dublin

Question 103

What does the title ‘The Fisherman’ portray?

Answer 103

• “The Fisherman” is very simplistic and idealistic: no pretentions or arrogance emphasises - how WBY wants all Irish people to be

Question 104

How does WBY show the fisherman’s link to nature in ‘The Fisherman’

Answer 104

“freckled man […] grey place […] In grey Connemara clothes” – the “freckled” complexion displays the rocky land of the Connemara whilst the fisherman’s grey clothes link to the “grey place” of the “Connemara”: emphasises the fisherman’s link with nature and the land where he lives → repeated in second stanza for emphasis

“cast his flies”- reference to fishing flies or animal flies: either way, it emphasises the fisherman’s link to nature → repeated “flies” in 2nd stanza for emphasis

Question 105

How does WBY show his distaste of modern Ireland in ‘The Fisherman’?

Answer 105

“The craven man in his seat/ The insolent unreproved” […]
“The witty man and his joke / Aimed at the commonest ear, /
The clever man who cries/ The catch-cries of the clown”

• WBY says what he dislikes about the modern Irishman: how they are rude, ironic, common and distasteful
• The use of anaphora emphasises the list like form, and how many things Yeats dislikes about them and the extent to which he does

“The beating down of the wise/ and great Art beaten down” – Chiasmus ABAB of “beating down”, “beaten down” highlights WBY’s displeasure at how modern Ireland disregards art- makes reference to Hugh Lane Bequest and illustrates the absence of romanticism in Ireland

“In scorn of this audience”- the purpose of the poem is identified here as to discard the principles of a modern Ireland and idealise of his perfect, Romantic Irishman

Question 106

How does WBY show his admiration and preference for past Ireland in ‘The Fisherman’

Answer 106

“Maybe a twelve-month since” - Use of old English “twelve-month” emphasises his preference for past Ireland – similar to “half-pence” in September 1913

Question 107

How is WBY hope shown in ‘The Fisherman’?

Answer 107

“The wise and simple man”- WBY shows how the fisherman was intelligent yet not consumerist or overly extravagant: what he hopes for the rest of modern Ireland to be like
The simple ABAB rhyme scheme and the simple, uncomplicated language emphasise the “wise and simple” traits that WBY is striving for + only 2 stanzas, and similar line length all adds to the simplicity

“all I had hoped ‘twould be/ To write for my own race/ and the reality:” – emphasises the contrast between how he hoped that the traits of the fisherman that he had previously described would also describe the rest of the Irish population (his “race”) but the “reality” is different.

“Climbing up to a place/ where stone is dark under froth” – “climbing up” emphasises how the ideal of the fisherman becomes the pinnacle of Yeats’ hope for Irishmen“stone is dark under froth” emphasises how the natural “stone” such as that in the Connemara is being polluted and covered by modern attitudes (“froth”) yet Yeats can still see it, although it is obscured

Question 108

How does WBY show that the fisherman is an ideal and not a reality?

Answer 108

“Imagining a man” strongly contrasts with “Although I can see him still” (the 1st line of the poem) and highlights how, as time has passed, the image of the romantic Irishman is fading and all Yeats sees is the modern and decadent Irishman- now the fisherman is nothing more than an ideal, made up of a figment of WBY’s imagination

“A man who does not exist, / A man who is but a dream” – emphasises how The Fisherman as a person and a poem is nothing more than a Utopian vision and is not at all reality

Question 109

What does the line “The living men that I hate/ The dead man that I loved” show in ‘The Fisherman’?

Answer 109

Chiasmus of “living”, “men”, “hate”, “dead”, “man”, “loved” (ABCABC) exemplifies the contrast between the history of Ireland that he loves and the detestable modern Ireland
“Living men I hate” represents William Martin Murphy whom rejected the Hugh Lane Bequest
“Dead man I loved” represents, for example, John Millington Synge, an Irish playwright whom WBY thought was a genius and/or O’Leary for example
Anaphora also exemplifies the contrast

Question 110

What lines show WBY defence mechanism against the masses of whom he disapproves in ‘The Fisherman’

Answer 110

“ ‘before I am old/ I shall have written him one/ Poem maybe as cold/ And passionate as dawn’ ”
-Contrast between “cold” and “passionate” of the “poem” could mean many things in Yeats’ life:

• Contrast between (“passionate”) unrequited love and (“cold”) love that is unreturned (The Cold Heaven)
• Contrast between the night (time of confusion and horror) to the morning (dawn = awakening)
• Those who appreciate Art (J.M Synge) and those who don’t (W.M Murphy)
• Ireland under English rule (“cold”) and a free Ireland (“passionate”)

“dawn” represents a new era and a time of awakening for Ireland: for people to respect and appreciate the traditional values of The Fisherman

Question 111

How does WBY display an acceptance and pleasure for his death in ‘The Man and The Echo’?

Answer 111

“Shall we in that great night rejoice? / What do we know but what we face”

-Glide alliteration “what” “we” “know” “what” “we” displays a movement and slipping towards death relucatantly

Question 112

How does WBY display an epiphany at the end of ‘The Man and The Echo’?

Answer 112

“But hush, for I have lost the theme,” - changed his tone from questioning his achievements

“It’s joy or night seem but a dream” - “joy” contrasts with “night” and thus displays life and death- all of which merges into a fragmentary moment, a dream–> displays the transitory nature of life, and how death is part of this dream of existence as well

“dropping out of sky or rock” gives the image of an idea (epiphany) coming out of nowhere to WBY

Question 113

What is the epiphany WBY experiences at the end of ‘The Man and The Echo’ and what is the evidence for this?

Answer 113

reference to “hawk”, “owl” and “rabbit” and semantic field to do with wildlife accentuates how all things in nature die and it is a part of life

“a stricken rabbit is crying out, / And its cry distracts my thought.”
–> the recognition that everything dies ends his “thought” of the purpose of his life and his wish to go back and change what has happened

Question 114

What is the purpose of the echo in ‘The Man and The Echo’?

Answer 114

The echo repeats part of what the man says:
“Lie down and die”
&
“Into the night”

• ->This displays how the echo is an extension of the man and emphasises how WBY is introspecting over the nature of his life
• ->The use of imperative “lie down and die” displays WBY’s questioning of whether he should just die and if there is any remaining purpose for him
• -> As the echo only takes part of his sentence and uses it out of context, it can be displaying how throughout WBY’s career, his words have been taken out of context, and even if someone interpreted his words to start a revolution, it was not his fault

–>Thus, the “stricken rabbit crying out” can be alluding to the echo which “distracts my thought” as he seems in a constant discussion with it and himself

Question 115

What is the rhyme scheme of ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’ and what effect does this have?

Answer 115

ABBA rhyme scheme displays the two women and how they were beautiful but in different ways

Question 116

How does WBY display the beauty of EGB and CM in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 116

“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

Question 117

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’?

Answer 117

“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

Question 118

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’?

Answer 118

“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”

Question 119

How does WBY display that the women have different political and ideological views to Yeats in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth’?

Answer 119

“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

Question 120

How does WBY display his uncertainty over the after-life and his future in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 120

“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

Question 121

What is the context of the poem ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 121

• Published in 1933

- The poem is an elegy, commemorating the life and death of EGB and CM posthumously

Question 122

How does WBY display the enemy as time in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 122

“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

Question 123

How does WBY attempt to deal with time in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 123

• “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

Question 124

How does WBY display the dangers of either destroying time or understanding it in ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 124

“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

Question 125

How does WBY display a sense of guilt at the end of ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’?

Answer 125

“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’

Question 126

What is the sense of ambiguity at the end of ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’

Answer 126

“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

Question 127

What is the structure of the poem ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’ and what effect does this have?

Answer 127

• 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

Question 128

What is form of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 128

-The poem is in the form ‘Ottava Rima’ with each stanza consisting of 5 lines in Iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme ABABABCC

• Ottava Rima is an old Italian form which is used in epic, heroic poems which emphasises why it was used in a poem of Sailing and the journey through life
• -> It also links to the romantic idea of solitude: the way in which WBY has lived his life

-The use of Roman numerals emphasise the eternality of the poem and how, as art and writing, it will last forever

Question 129

What is the context of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’? (3)

Answer 129

• Published in 1928
• Byzantium is a historic empire which was renowned for it’s arts and culture
• The poem was re-written three times to emphasise how WBY strove for perfection within his art pieces

Question 130

What are the themes and overall messages of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’? (3)

Answer 130

• Old age
• Artificial superior to natural
• Surviving for eternity through the medium of art

Question 131

What is the context of ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 131

WBY has just been rejected by Iseult Gonne, following years of failed courtship with Maud Gonne.

• WBY is witnessing Ireland in turmoil and rebellion
• At the age of 51, he realises that he is coming to the end of his life

Question 132

What’s the overall message of ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 132

• WBY failed love
• WBY feeling as though he is moving towards death
• WBY searching for eternal love and beauty- wants time to stop so he can record the beauty and so he doesn’t have to die or realise that his love is hopeless

Question 133

How does the poem ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ show that WBY life is coming to an end?

Answer 133

“The trees are in their autumn beauty”- coming to the end of the year, metaphor for the end of his life- “autumn” is also repeated in the second stanza
“autumn beauty” also displays how the “beauty” that WBY is witnessing is also diminishing

“Under the October twilight the water/ Mirrors a still sky; / Upon the brimming water”- “October twilight” is tautological metaphor of the transition of coming to the end of WBY’s life
“water/ Mirrors a still sky” displays how the water is not actually a true image of beauty but just a reflection
“still sky” displays how the only true and eternal beauty is the intangible and celestial sky
“mirrors a still sky” vs “brimming water” displays how the water cant even maintain a reflection of the beauty for eternity as it begins to brim and overflow

Question 134

How does WBY show his envy for the swans in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 134

“I have looked upon those brilliant creatures” has plosive sounds to display how WBY envies the swans/ “I have looked upon” emphasises how it is subjective to Yeats- maybe nature maintains its beauty; however, it Yeats’ perspective all has changed as his life events have altered and his position and emotion are different.

“And now my heart is sore”- his “heart is sore” now that he has witnessed the brilliance of the swans: “heart sore” could be the swans representing his lovers (specifically Maude) and how every time he witnesses them (for 19 years now) his “heart” becomes “sore” as he has consistently faced rejection from them
“heart sore” could also be displaying how he is ageing and he is growing sore with age; in comparison to the “brilliant creatures”

Question 135

How do the swans in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ show that he is without a lover?

Answer 135

“nine-and-fifty swans” – Old English style of counting emphasises WBY’s old age and his feeling of isolation
having the “nine” at the start also emphasises how the number is odd and implies that Yeats is the 60th swan, whilst he sees the other 59
→ By making himself the 60th swan he attempts to eternalise himself in nature create an eternal beauty through which he can last forever
→ Odd number also displays how WBY is noticing the imperfections within things he previously thought embodied eternal beauty

“unwearied still, lover by lover”- “unwearied” contrasts with WBY’s “and now my heart is sore” and displays the difference between the poet and the swan…”lover by lover” also displays how the swans go in pairs and as there are 60, one is without a pair and it is implied that he is the 60th swan who is also without a “lover”

“broken rings” makes subtle reference to his failed marriage attempt to both Iseult and Maude Gonne

“Among what rushes will they build” – The swans eventually choose to make their nest elsewhere which can be symbolic of WBY’s failed relationship with Maud Gonne and how she decided to marry someone else

Question 136

How does WBY show imperfections in time in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 136

“The nineteenth autumn has come upon me”- “nineteenth” further highlights imperfections that WBY notices in time itself: time cannot withstand beauty; time is detrimental to beauty and well-being
Also repetition of “autumn” to highlight the end of his time

Question 137

How does WBY show confusion in time and nature in The Wild Swans at Coole?

Answer 137

“And scatter wheeling in great broken rings / Upon their clamorous wings”- the plosives in “scatter”, “broken” and “clamorous” juxtapose the soft homeoteleuten of “wheeling”, “rings” and “wings” to emphasise WBY’s confusion at the nature of time and beauty

Question 138

How does WBY show the contrasts of his older self to his youth in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’

Answer 138

“trod with a lighter tread”- polyptoton of “trod” and “tread” emphasises how although things have remained constant, they have changed in the subject eyes of Yeats…..It displays how in the past, Yeats was for more energetic and jovial when he thought he had a chance with Maud Gonne: links to “hot blood of youth” in ‘The Cold Heaven’

Question 139

How does WBY show freedom of the swans in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 139

“Their hearts have not grown old”- contrast between the swans heart and the poets: they appear immortal to him as he views them as a race, and idea, rather than an individual, and thus he recognises that they will outlive him, and their beauty will remain for longer than his

Question 140

How does WBY show his discontent with the afterlife in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 140

The last line “To find they have flown away?” has an unusual an anapaestic rhythm to add suspense and delay to “away?”

The question mark “to find they have flown away?” leaves the poem open ended and highlights his discontent at the future of his existence and the afterlife: If the world is eternal but no beauty is eternal, what will be left in the world?

Question 141

What is significant about the line “All’s changed, since I” in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 141

• no beauty is able to last forever: WBY’s complexion has changed; his emotions have changed; subtle reference that he realises that the swans, too, have changed…. “since I” displays how it is all in WBY’s perspective rather than a general fact- through his repeated use of pronouns, WBY accentuates how beauty is subjective and only changes in the eyes of the beholder: thus, only things intangible can remain constantly beautiful, as they are not viewed by many beholders

Question 142

How does WBY show that nature is his only companion in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’?

Answer 142

“companionable streams” display how Yeats feels his only companion now is nature and other than that he has nothing to cling to other than this image and hope for an eternal nature that he believes he can find in nature

Question 143

How does WBY emphasise his old age in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 143

“That is no country for old men. The young / In one another’s arms,”

• ->In 1922, the Irish Free state was formed following the Anglo Irish treaty and created a new generation of Irish leaders and got rid of the old English ones–> hence, WBY feels he, as a member of the old generation, has no place in society
• ->emphatic positioning of “young” at the end of the line juxtaposes “old”

-“An aged man is but a paltry thing” - WBY believes he now has nothing left to offer and is meaningless now

• “A tattered coat upon a stick”
• ->”tattered coat” a metaphor of the old and aged skin whilst the “stick” represents the wearied bones of WBY that hold the “coat” (skin)

“And fastened to a dying animal / It knows not what it is”

• ->Displays how his heart and mind are not aging but his body is dragging him down
• ->”It knows not what it is” emphasises how his body does not recognise it’s importance to Yeats as it is dying

Question 144

How does WBY display that all parts of nature are born to die and it is a part of life in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 144

“-Those dying generations-“
–>displays how all things in nature die and nothing lasts forever (all generations are dying)- separated by the two dashes displays the isolation of these dying generations as they are neglected by youth

“The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas”

• Mackerel lay up to 1 million eggs: born to reproduce & emphasises how its a world for the young
• salmon die almost immediately after giving birth: the old have no purpose

“Fish, flesh or fowl, commend all summer long / Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.”

• ->Tricolon of nature: “fish, flesh or fowl” displays how all of nature dies
• ->contrast between fricative “fish, flesh or fowl”, and plosive “begotten, born, and dies” emphasises how all the beauties of nature will at some point die

Question 145

How does WBY display the importance of the arts in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 145

“sensual music all neglect” displays how the youth appreciate are for it’s sensory values and neglect it’s artistic- and most important- appeal

“nor is there singing school but studying / Monuments of its own magnificence” - how the arts are like monuments that retain their beauty forever –> reference to “dance” in ‘The Cat and The Moon’ and ‘Among Schoolchildren’

“set upon a golden bough to sing”
–>his poetry acts as a song and a piece of art that is acheived through the medium of the poem itself- the poem acts as the song and thus WBY does become the golden bird (“bough”)

Question 146

What are the religious and spiritual references made in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’? (3)

Answer 146

repetition of “holy fire” displays how WBY feels both the realities of heaven and hell, and essentially, of the afterlife

• “perne in a gyre” makes reference to the cycle of time
• “Once out of nature I shall never take / My bodily form from any natural thing” - Displays how WBY doesnt want to be re-incarnated as he will merely have to feel the same pain over death as he feels now
• Mixture of beliefs such as heavn/hell, reincarnation and gyres displays WBY’s overall confusion at the afterlife and nature of existence

Question 147

How does WBY display a preference for the artificial over natural creations in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 147

“But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make / of hammered gold and gold enamelling”- “hammered” and “enamelling” are both artificial and Yeats displays how he prefers them as he wants to be in their form and he sees them as “gold”

“Or set upon a golden bough to sing”
–>WBY would rather be a golden, artifical bird, than a real one as it means that it would last longer

Question 148

How does WBY display that he wants to remain eternal through nature in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 148

“And therefore I have sailed the seas and come/ To the holy city of Byzantium”
–>WBY feels that as he has aged, he has sailed and become part of the monuments of Byzantium and of everlasting art

”; and gather me/ Into the artifice of eternity
–> The only way to live forever is to be made an artifact of art and WBY wants to be made a part of it

“Byzantium / of what is past, or passing, or to come”
–>If WBY becomes part of Byzantium, he will be able to experience the past of the ancient city, the time passing and all of the future as he will become an artifact of art

Question 149

What is the significance of the title ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?

Answer 149

“Sailing” makes more emphasis on the journey than the destination
-“Sailing” can also be a metaphor for passing through life and coming to old age

“Byzantium” itself no longer exists which highlights the impossibility of the dream of lasting forever there, and also displays how not even the art of Byzantium is eternal– WBY realises that nothing lasts forever but through writing the poem itself will live on past the poet’s life

Question 150

What are the overall messages of ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 150

• There is no need for WBY to look back on his schooldays and question if he should’ve done things differently as he is still that same schoolboy: just an older version- no separation!
• Despite WBY’s looking back on a young MG, she’s is still that same young, beautiful person: just having aged
• Death is a part of life- just the same as labour is part of the final creation, and the dancer is part of the dance- Thus WBY should embrace and accept it

Question 151

What is the form of Among Schoolchildren?

Answer 151

Ottava Rima- 8 stanzas with 8 lines each in Iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme ABABABCC
-The same as in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ and typically used for heroic and epic poems: displays the epic journey through his life as he looks back upon it in the poem

Question 152

How does WBY display his ageing and looking through life in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 152

“I walk through the long schoolroom questioning;”
–> metaphor for the passage through life

–>WBY becomes a schoolchild in that he is also educating himself over the events of his life

“There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow”
–>Ironic undertone as WBY recognises that this is the perception of him in his age, but he doesn’t want to accept this

Question 153

How does WBY display the purposelessness of his life in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 153

“In the best modern way”
–> feels his purpose has been exhausted and the modern way is better

“In momentary wonder stare upon / A sixty-year-old smiling public man.”

• ->Lack of personal pronoun and simple description emphasises his opinions of his own futility
• ->The dashes that break up “sixty-year-old” act like aposiopeses as WBY reluctantly accepts his ageing

”- enough of that” - Caesura of hyphen and “enough of that” emphasises how WBY tries to forget about his ageing and futility

Question 154

How does WBY display the dream of eternality and going back to childhood in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 154

“I dream” at start of second stanza juxtaposes “I walk” at the start of the first stanza
–>Emphasises how his introspection of his life is merely theoretical (link to “byzantium”- the place that no longer exists)

Question 155

How does WBY allude to ‘Leda and the Swan’ in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 155

“I dream of a Ledaen body”
–> emphasises how he not only wants his sexual pushes to come to fruition but also that he seeks the knowledge of the deity

Stanza V: “what youthful mother, a shape upon her lap” […] “the uncertainty of his setting forth”
–> Continues to question whether a mother knows what will come of their child (he does not know the future of Ireland)

Question 156

How does WBY allude to ‘The Cat and The Moon’ in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 156

“It seemed that our two natures blent” […] “Into the yolk and white of the one shell”

–>emphasises the constant link of different parts of nature

Question 157

How does WBY display the link between the young and old MG in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 157

“I look upon one child or t’other there / And wonder if she stood so at that age - “
–>WBY sees MG in the young

“every paddlers heritage - “ […] “colour upon cheek or hair”
–> displays the similarities in the “colour” and “heritage”

“And thereupon my heart is driven wild: / She stands before me as a living child”
–> the emotions WBY feels of the child is the same he feels for MG: hence, in the perspective of WBY, the young and old MG are the same and intrinsically linked

Question 158

How does WBY begin to realise the blending of time and link between components of nature in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 158

“She stands before me as a living child”
–>MG has now become a child, they are the same being; just in different form

“are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole”?
–>displays how all things are linked and the small components are part of a larger being

“How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
–>Rhetorical question to end the poem exemplifies how the outcome of life is indistinguishable to all the things that led to that outcome

Question 159

How does WBY emphasise the swift and easy transition between the past, present, and future- displaying a link between all three- in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 159

“Her present image floats into the mind- / Did Quattrocento finger fashion it?”
–>”floats” = soft and smooth transition through time

–>Emphasises the transient nature of time through juxtaposition of “present” and “Quattrocento” (Quattrocento refers to early renaissance art)

–> Dash at end of first line exemplifies the shift through time

Question 160

How does WBY attempt to eternalise himself through artwork in ‘Among Schoolchildren’?

Answer 160

“Did Quattrocento finger fashion it”

–>In reference to MG and how she seems eternally beautiful, as if a piece of art

Question 161

Quotations of the metaphor of the mother and her child in ‘Among Schoolchildren’ and its meaning? (3)

Answer 161

“What a youthful mother, a shape upon her lap”
–> “shape” repeated to emphasise the transitory nature of humans and their development through time

“And that must sleep, shriek, struggle to escape”
–> displays all the hardship the mother must go through to bring up the child through the sibilance

“Would think her son, did she but see that shape / With sixty or more winters on its head”
–>now that he is old and his years have been lived, what was the point in all the hardship of bringing WBY up?

Question 162

Quotes for WBY’s reference to philosophers in ‘Among Schoolchildren’ and its significance?

Answer 162

“Plato thought nature but a spume that plays / Upon a ghostly paradigm of things”
–>Plato saw nature as merely a collection of things that abide by the laws of nature

“Soldier Aristotle played the taws / Upon the bottom of a king of kings”
–>Aristotle saw the importance of humans but thought that they had to be educated and disciplined

“Pythagoras/ Fingered upon a fiddle-stick or strings”
–> Made music that mirrored the spheres of planets

“Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird”
–>Link to Sailing to Byzantium and ironic in disregarding the world’s most famous philosophers displays how he will question the purpose and nature of life rather than reluctantly accept his death and ageing

Question 163

How does WBY display the human act of creating symbols to represent emotion in ‘Among Schoolchildren’? (5)

Answer 163

“Both nuns and mothers worship images”
–>The images of their children and gods

“To keep a marble or bronze repose”
–>Link to Sailing to Byzantium in that people put their emotions into objects as they are permanent and tangible

“symbolise” at the end of line emphatically positions to display the importance of symbols to WBY- people use them to find emotion, and his poetry is renowned for them

“O self born mockers of man’s enterprise”
–>displays how the symbols do not come from the world and thus are not real, just as his poetry is meaningless as it is nothing more than symbols: HOWEVER, he prefers this as it lasts forever, and everything “self born” is meaningless to him and merely a “mocker” of man’s creation

–>”Labour is blossoming or dancing”
“Labour” links to “enterprise” and emphasises how just like the creations of “enterprise”, the “blossoming” of children or nature and the expression of the body, “dancing” is also a man-made creation. Similarly, “labour” links to childbirth- hence WBY displays the intrinsic link between man’s creation and nature, and his poetry and nature, and thus realises the link between all components- the young version of himself and the current, so theres no point in looking back negatively on his life

Question 164

What is the context of ‘Easter 1916’?

Answer 164

written in response to the failed uprising of Irish Nationalists against British rule in the week of Easter Sunday 1916. Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood attempted to take a number of government buildings in Dublin, including the Post Office buildings. The British army defeated the rebels who barricaded the Post Office and executed the leaders.

Question 165

How does WBY shows his distaste and disregard for those that became rebels in ‘Easter 1916’? [5]

Answer 165

• “I have met them at close of day” - separates Yeats from them through using first person
• “I have passed with a nod of the head/ Or polite meaningless words” - shows their insignificance to Yeats and how he doesn’t want much to do with them. Creates a dull and displeasing image of the Irish.
• repetition of “meaningless words” highlights the repetitive and unchanging days. Indicates that nothing is changing as these lines make the poem feel like it isn’t progressing. It also emphasises Yeats’ disregard for them - they’re not worth his time.
• “Of a mocking tale of gibe/ To please a companion” - he laughed and mocked the rebels showing the reader his distaste. However it also seems to imply that Yeats couldn’t do anything about them, so all he could do was mock them and the sincerity of the line shows up his discontent.
• “But lived where motley is worn:” - clothes of the jester/fool. Suggests that he lives among foolish people. Caesura separates this line form the proceeding refrain, in order to highlight the refrains importance to the reader.

Question 166

How does WBY create a dull and displeasing image in “Easter 1916”?

Answer 166

• “From counter or desk among grey/ Eighteenth century houses” - suggests that the Irish have been influenced too heavily by the English; they have lost all their Irish personality. The colour “grey” helps to enhance this dull image and the urbanisation of Ireland.

Question 167

What effects does the refrain in ‘Easter 1916’ create? And how does it create ambiguity? [2]

Answer 167

• “All changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born”
  Ambiguity is created through the antithesis “terrible beauty” refers to the birth of a new Ireland, which will be painful due to the rebels’ violent actions against British rule. Although the people of Ireland are coming together to fight for independence, it’s being done in a violent way; going against Yeats’ wishes.
• The refrain also acts as an epitaph for the dead rebels and promises a painful birth for new Ireland because of the rebels.

Question 168

How does perceive Con Markievicz in ‘Easter 1916’? [6]

Answer 168

• “That women’s days were spent/ In ignorant good-will” - suggests she had a superficiality
• “Her nights in argument/ Until her voice grew shrill” - suggests her political activism was unattractive, which could be a sexist remark
• Rhyming “good-will” and “shrill” is an antithesis showing the change she has undergone - also shown through “days” and “nights”.
• “Her nights in argument” could also suggest that her revolutionary ideas weren’t coming into effect and that in the end they didn’t really make a difference; Irish independence is just a dream.
• “What voice more sweet than hers/ When, young and beautiful” - semantic field of innocence emphasises the current change she has undergone through the becoming politically active and that she is no longer “beautiful” and “sweet”
• “She rode to harriers?” - rhetorical question shows Yeats’ disbelief and desire for her to be what she once was.
  [“harriers” are people who engage with persistent attacks on others]

Question 169

Who is “This man” and what is his relevance in ‘Easter 1916’? [4]

Answer 169

• Patrick Pearce who “had kept a school/ And rode our winged horse”. The “winged horse” refers to Pegasus whom became a symbol of poetry in the Renaissance.
• “winged horse” is a fitting image for Pearce because he wrote poetry and founded a school. Having “winged” before “horse” emphasises the power and can therefore emphasise Pearce’s power of poetry and gives him a sensitivity to show that even people like him can be violent.
• The repetition of “rode” shows that Con Markiewicz and Patrick Pearce were the driving forces of the uprising
• “our” shows a gradual connection to the rebels

Question 170

Who does “This other his helper and friend” refer to in ‘Easter 1916’? [3]

Answer 170

• refers to Thomas MacDonogh who was a playwright and a leader of the uprising.
• “He might have won fame in the end” – shows Yeats’ admiration for him as a playwright and promising poet.
• “So sensitive his nature seemed,/ So daring and sweet his thought” – emphasising Yeats disbelief of his actions of violence. Shows he was willing to go to such great lengths despite his benevolent nature and also emphasised the good intentions behind his actions. Sibilance reflects his gentle and soft nature. Repetition of “So” emphasises Yeats respect and admiration for him and helps the reader to be empathetic towards Thomas MacDonough.

Question 171

Who does “This other man” refer to in ‘Easter 1916’? What’s his significance? [5]

Answer 171

• “A drunken, vainglorious lout” – adjectives show Yeat’s hatred towards him, due to the fact that he married Maud Gonne who Yeats was in love with and inspired by. The plosive sounds reflect his cold nature and Yeats hatred towards him. The comma breaks up the fluidity giving the line a harsh edge.
• “most bitter wrong/ To some who are near my heart” – is referring to the pain he caused Maud Gonne because he beat her during the marriage and how it hurt Yeats because he loved Gonne so much. “near my heart” emphasises Yeats the gradual connection to the rebels in the poem
• “I number him in this song” – because he took part in the Easter rising
• “He, too, has resigned his part/ In the casual comedy” – Yeats appears to have a disapproving view on the rising and mocks it - “the casual comedy”. The word “resigned” refers to his execution but it suggests that he has given up and no more can be done.
• “Transformed utterly:/ A terrible beauty is born”. “Transformed” is much more definitive and irreversible than changed. Two syllables has much more impact than one (“changed”).

Question 172

How is change represented in the third stanza in ‘Easter 1916’? [5]

Answer 172

• “Through summer and winter” - change of season
• “the living stream” - fluidity of water reflects the natural modernisation of Ireland
• “A Shadow of cloud on the stream/ Changes minute by minute” - emphasises the rapidity in which things change and how it’s hard for Irish Nationalists to keep up with the way Ireland is changing
• “Minute by minute they live” - repetition for emphasis
• The abundance of various aspects of nature emphasise changes that happens everyday, “minute by minute”.

Question 173

What’s the significance of the stone in ‘Easter 1916’? [3]

Answer 173

• “enchanted to a stone”. This suggests the rebels have emotionally turned cold; have hearts of “stone”. It shows their determined purpose for Irish independence amidst change.
• The stone “Trouble[s] the living stream” this shows that the rebels trying to stop the natural fluidity and modernisation of Ireland. The stone has connotations of immobility, inflexibility and insensitivity.
• In stanza 4 “Too long a sacrifice/ Can make a stone of the heart.” – shows the long struggle and continuing sacrifice of the Irish, and how it hardens the heart. What’s the significance of the stone in ‘Easter 1916’? [3]

Question 174

How does WBY present a change of attitude towards the rebels in ‘Easter 1916’? [2]

Answer 174

• “Hearts with one purpose alone” – highlights their fervent will for change in Ireland and the strength in which they feel this. Contrast to the beginning of the poem where Yeats expresses their insignificance. But now they have “hearts” and feeling.
• “Hearts” also emphasises their desire and shows that they were willing to give up their lives for this cause.

Question 175

Whats the significance of nature in the third stanza of ‘Easter 1916’

Answer 175

• Shows the natural development of Ireland - it changes like nature and emphasises that it’s a natural process that’s hard to stop

Question 176

How does the second refrain in ‘Easter 1916’ differ from the first refrain? And what are its effects?

Answer 176

• “Transformed utterly:/ A terrible beauty is born”. “Transformed” is much more definitive and irreversible than changed. Two syllables has much more impact than one (“changed”).