Yeats Context Flashcards
1
Q
The Stolen Child [4]
A
- first poem published in Crossways 1889, he was 21
- it celebrates the Irish stories which his mother loved.
- In this poem, a human child is enticed away into a fairyland. The child forgets his friends and family at home because the fairies are so poetic and enchanting, thus he follows them; they convince him that their world is joyful and playful, while the human world is full of tears.
- 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.
2
Q
September 1913 [7]
A
- Expresses Yeats’ frustration over how violence is not the way forward, however peaceful Ireland is ‘with O’Leary in the grave’ and all that is left is violence.
- Significant date, general strike where workers were shut out of factories as their employers did not want to acquiesce to better working conditions / wages
- Union ITGWN (Yeats argued that this was completely against Irish Romanticism)
- John O’Leary - died in 1907
- founder of Young Republic Brotherhood
- Yeats was highly influenced by him – he taught Yeats that revolution could be born of art.
- father / grandfather like figure to Yeats
3
Q
The Cold Heaven
A
- The Poem was inspired by strange sky patterns; it is revelatory. Yeats is confused and this is reflected by the vagueness of the poem.
- It is revelatory also as it has biblical allusions: ‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.’ – Revelation 21: 1. This reflects confusion, and confounds any beliefs that ‘heaven’ is synonymous with peace.
- Romantic in style – tries to transcend reason in order to focus on emotion.
