Yeats Flashcards
De Man said of Yeats’s poetry that “no works or passages can be singled out and given true exegetic value” (147). Why?
Because Yeats’ work does not try to establish truth, but rather seems to circle around an aporia which presents itself in the linguistics of the poetry.
Discuss the formal aspects of “Easter, 1916”
The whole poem uses an alternating rhyme scheme of ababbcbcdede, etc. with plenty of slant rhyme. The first stanza is full of enjambment which contributes to the prosaic nature of life before the rebellion. They come “From counter or desk among grey / Eighteenth-century houses.” The enjambment drops off for the second stanza, where the tone is eulogizing. Once the “A terrible beauty is born” line is repeated, becoming a motif, the tone is somber and truly terrible.
Describe the historical event discussed in “Easter, 1916”
It responds to the Easter Rising of 1916, during which an Irish Republic was proclaimed and a force of some 700 Volunteers seized key sites in Dublin and held out against British forces for six days before surrendering. In the two weeks following, fifteen of the Rising’s leaders were executed. The Rising was planned for the Easter period deliberately to evoke Christ’s death and resurrection: many of its leaders expected to die, and they hoped their sacrifice would bring new life to Ireland.
What are Yeats’s feelings as he writes “Easter, 1916”?
He seems to be experiencing a crisis about poetry and beauty, among other things. The nationalist poetic rhetoric he alternately embraced and displayed in his poetry may have led to the deaths of real people that he knew. The idealism of their death contends with the terribleness of its reality.
What is the significance of Byzantium in Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium”?
Chosen as capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine, who renamed it Constantinople in 330, for Yeats it was the image of an ideal city, where, briefly, “religious, aesthetic and practical life were one.” It also seems to be the setting for the vatic bard–perhaps because Byzantium itself is outside of time, eternal. There he sings “To lords and ladies . . . Of what is past, or passing, or to come.”
“Caught in that sensual music all neglect / ….”
“Monuments of unaging intellect.” Sailing to Byzantium (1927; pbshd in The Tower, 1928)
In “Sailing to Byzantium” the speaker says “O sages standing in God’s holy fire / As in the gold mosaic of a wall”–what is he referring to?
Yeats saw the friezes at the church of S. Apollinare Nuova at Ravenna in 1907, depicting early Christian martyrs being burned.
What is the metrical scheme of “Sailing to Byzantium”?
It comprises four stanzas in ottava rima, each made up of eight ten-syllable lines.
What is Ottava Rima?
The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters. Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c pattern
“When Irishmen were illuminating the Book of Kells, and making the jeweled croziers in the National Museum, Byzantium was the centre of European civilization and the source of its spiritual philosophy, so I symbolize the search for the spiritual life by a journey to that city.” Which poet and work?
Yeats, STB
Who is Hanrahan, in “The Tower”?
Hanrahan is the peasant “everyman” created by the speaker. He is lame, unable to work, and fatally addicted to drink. These characteristics were typical of Irish peasants at the time that Yeats wrote this collection, although the lameness was more often metaphysical, in the face of British oppression. [This be from Gradesaver]
Discuss style in Yeats’s “The Tower”
In one of the most complicated poems of his career, Yeats tries to come to terms with his age and with the changes his country is undergoing. “The Tower” is presented in a fragmented style, a proto-modernist device that shows Yeats’ move away from romantic Irish mythology toward a sparser approach. This change was partially affected by his friendship with Ezra Pound, who encouraged Yeats to seek out alternatives to the flowery language that characterized his earlier collections.
Discuss the early section of “The Tower,” about youth, etc.
The ideal of manhood and youth is introduced in the first stanza through the representation of the speaker: a young man. This image is pastoral, with the young man fishing in the fertile streams of Ireland. The iconic mountain of Ben Bulben tells the reader that this is western Ireland, where Yeats used to vacation during summers away from London. The speaker’s turn to Plato and reason seems forced. Put together with the narrative element of cutting off the farmer’s ears, the implication is that the speaker’s decision is unnatural and made in a top-down fashion. The poet can impose rules on himself, just as the rich can on the poor.
Discuss Maude Gonne and her appearance in “The Tower”
The lovely peasant girl, whom the speaker also refers to as Helen (as in Helen of Troy), is undoubtedly Maude Gonne. Gonne, a revolutionary who was the great love of Yeats’ life, did not return his love. She appears often in Yeats’ poetry, often symbolized by or associated with a moon: something lovely, feminine, untouchable, and capable of causing madness. The peasant who drowns in pursuit of her is proof of her power.
In “The Tower” Yeats’s Hanrahan is a drunk peasant who has a brief moment of glory, turning all but one card in a pack of cards into a pack of hounds (a reference to Cuchulain’s hounds). The one card is turned into a hare. Discuss this odd incident.
Hanrahan is performing a kind of magic trick–possibly he is springing cards from one hand to another. On a slightly less literal level, he could be cheating at whatever card game they’re playing, making himself a hare and them hounds. Finally, there’s the sense that he is turning mere images and playthings into Cuchulain’s hounds–great hunters and fierce fighters. Among these three levels of meaning are blended the Irish peasant-clown Hanrahan (drunk, impoverished, pathetic), the artist capable of creating illusions and tricks for entertainment, and the bard who channels Cuchulain. In modern context this means the 1916 uprising, among other things.
