The Lake Isle of Innisfree Stanza 1 Yeats wants to go amp live on the island of Innisfree He would like to live there by himself amp lead a simple life He would like to build a small cabin amp wants to grow his own food ID: 288093
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Slide1
W.B. Yeats
Leaving Certificate PoetrySlide2
W.B. Yeats:
BiographySlide3
W.B. Yeats:
Biography
Yeats struggled in school but spent a lot of time at his father’s studio where he met artists and writers. John Butler Yeats constantly encouraged his children in the world of ideas, philosophy and art.
Despite their Anglo-Irish background, Yeats’ parents were broadly supportive of Irish Nationalism. Yeats, in turn, was passionate about the Irish cause. In 1885 he met the
Fenian
activist John O’Leary, whose romanticised view of the nation struck a chord with Yeats. O’Leary’s twenty year imprisonment, his patriotism and his devotion to cultural, rather than military, nationalism all held an attraction for the young Yeats. Slide4
W.B. Yeats:
Biography
Yeats’ writings began to be published in newspapers and journals. His first work, an epic poem,
The Wanderings of
Oisín
, was published in 1887. It was written in the form of a dialogue between St. Patrick and
Oisín
, the ancient Irish hero. Yeats was immediately recognised as a significant poet.
Throughout the 1890’s, Yeats became fascinated by the occult, ritual magic and mystic Celtic tales, all of which were to influence his writings. Slide5
W.B.
YEats
: Biography
In 1889, William met Maud Gonne. He immediately fell in love with her and over the years frequently asked her to marry him. They never married but she became an inspiration for his poetry and he wrote many poems about her and for her.
Maud Gonne refused each proposal, partly because she believed that Yeats’ unrequited love for her inspired his greatest poetry. Gonne went on to marry the republican icon John MacBride, though the marriage did not last long. Slide6
W.B. Yeats:
Biography
Yeats met Lady Gregory in 1896. The following summer he spent two months at her house,
Coole
Park
, in Galway, the first of many summers he spent there. They collected folklore together and she provided him with space to write.
Yeats
and others set up the
Irish National Theatre Society
to perform plays with a distinctly Irish theme
.
This led to the establishment of the
Abbey Theatre
in 1904. Yeats was
very
aware of the politics of the time.
In
January 1907, the Abbey put on a new play by J.M. Synge,
The Playboy of the Western World
. Audiences were outraged and riots ensued.Slide7Slide8
Lake isle of
innisfree
Yeats wants to go
and live on the island of Innisfree. He would like to live there by himself and lead a simple life – building a small cabin and growing his own food.
“Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee”Slide9
Lake isle of innisfree
The poet describes the tranquillity of the island. The mornings are very peaceful
and
filled with sounds of crickets chirping “for peace comes dropping slow”.
At noon the heather glows purple in the sunlight
. At
night the glittering stars are reflected in the water.Slide10
Lake isle of innisfree
The thought of Innisfree is always in the poet’s mind
and
heart: “I hear it in the deep heart’s core”.
He is always imagining the pleasant sounds of its waters
: “
for always night and day/ I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore
”.Slide11
Theme: longing to escape
Innisfree is depicted as a place of incredible tranquillity. It is a place of great silence devoid of any man-made sounds. Here one can enjoy the background noise of nature; the flapping sound of the linnets, the buzzing of the bees, the crickets’ song and the waves hitting the shore.
“I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore”Slide12
Theme: longing to escape
Innisfree is the place where the poet will discover the peace he so craves:
“And I have will have some peace there”
.In a memorable image, Yeats presents peace as a physical substance, “dropping” in the form of dew to cover the entire island, drenching the grasses where the crickets are busy about their song.Slide13
Theme: longing to escape
Many people experience moments, like Yeats in this poem, when they feel like dropping out, when they feel like getting out of the ‘rat-race’.
They may feel like it’s time to turn their backs on the stresses and strains of modern living, of exams or deadlines or career pressure:
“I will arise and go now”.
They may even fantasise, as Yeats does here, of dropping off the rid completely and living self-sufficiently:
“And live alone in the bee-loud glade”.
Relying purely on mother nature to survive. Slide14
Theme: longing to escape
The poem opens with a dramatic declaration of intent:
“I will arise and go now”
. It’s as if the poet has suddenly made a decision. This new life, he declares, will start immediately. He even emphasises this point by repeating it in the third stanza.
Yet it seems unlikely that this new life will actually happen. Innisfree seems like an idealised, almost heavenly, version of the real place. It is doubtful that Yeats will leave his real life behind.
However, he holds the idea of Innisfree within his heart to console him when he is stuck
“on the roadway, or on the pavements grey”
.
“I hear it in the deep heart’s core”Slide15
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Repetition
Repetition is a strong element of this poem’s verbal music. The opening line of the poem repeats the word
“go”, and suggests the poet’s earnest determination to act on his dream.
The words
“peace”
and
“dropping”
are also repeated, slowing the pace of the lines to create a soothing, lulling music.
The word
“hear”
, repeated in the third stanza, emphasises how strongly the poet recalls the sound of the island’s “lapping” waters, even when amid the “pavements grey”.Slide16
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Assonance and Alliteration
The repeated ‘h’ sounds in line 3 give the poem a pleasant alliterative effect:
“will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee”.
Assonance features in line 10 where the repeated ‘a’ and ‘o’ sounds create a soft musical effect:
“I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore”
. Combined with the alliteration of the ‘l’ sounds in this line, these techniques make this line very pleasant to the ear. They bring to mid the peace and tranquillity Yeats experiences when he thinks of Innisfree. Slide17
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Nature Imagery
This is a poem of contrasting imagery. There is a stark difference between the imagery of the city and the imagery of Innisfree.
The city is a drab and dull place, composed of roadways and
“
pavements grey
”
.
The island, in contrast, is alive with colour and sound. We can contrast the
“purple glow”
of the heather with the
“pavements grey”. Any other examples of beautiful nature imagery?Slide18
Questions
Describe the theme of this poem and explain your personal response to it.
How did Yeats’ use of language (
poetic techniques) help bring the poem to life for you?Slide19
The Wild swans at
coole
Before you read:
Swans are a common subject in poetry, as well as mythology and fairy tales. With the person beside you think of as many examples of swans in stories or popular culture. Discuss what you think swans might represent or stand for.Slide20
The wild swans at
coole
This poem is set in
Coole Park, Co. Galway. Yeats is wandering through the grounds of the park when he sees a flock of swans floating on a lake.
The sight of the swans reminds Yeats of his first visit to the park 19 years earlier
. He
thinks about how much his life has changed since. Slide21
The Wild swans at
coole
The poem begins by setting an autumn scene
: “The trees are in their autumn beauty”. Yeats suggests this place is beautiful, calm and peaceful.
It is 19 years since Yeats first visited the park
and
saw the swans upon the lake.Slide22
The wild swans at
coole
On the first visit he attempted to count the number of the swans, however the swans flew into the air before he could finish counting them
.
The strength
and
power of the swans is suggested by the poet’s description of them
as
“
clamourous
”.Slide23
The Wild swans at
coole
The poet
admires the swans, calling them “brilliant creatures”. However, the sight of their beauty makes him feel sad because his life has changed so much since he first saw the swans 19 years ago, when he was a much younger man.
Back
then he “
trod with a lighter tread
” – his body was youthful.Slide24
The Wild swans at
coole
The
swans ‘hearts’ have not grown old. Their lives are still full of adventure and enthusiasm: “passion & conquest”.
The
swans are not alone, they travel in pairs: “
lover by lover
”. Plus they
are free to fly anywhere they please: “
wander where they will
”.Slide25
The Wild swans at
coole
Yeats knows he will wake up one day and they will be gone. He
wonders where the swans will build their nests once they leave
Coole
: “
Among what rushes will they build
”.
Wherever
they go they will bring “delight to men’s eyes”.Slide26
Theme: change / growing older
In this poem, Yeats is preoccupied with growing older. He is struck by the fact that nineteen years of his life have rushed by so quickly since he first saw the swans:
“now my heart is sore”
. The poem charts how his life has changed since he first visited Coole Park, and how it will continue to change beyond the moment that he now experiences. Slide27
Theme: change / growing older
There was a time when the poet felt as vital and passionate as the swans he sees on the lake. Nineteen years ago he was a young man, youthful and carefree.
Now he longer feels like the swans. He is weighed down by the cares of middle age and no longer walks with the “lighter tread”
of youth.
As a middle-aged man, Yeats feels passion and adventure are no longer a big part of his life. Whereas once he felt like
“those brilliant creatures”
, now he can only watch them and appreciate their beauty.Slide28
Theme: change / growing older
Soon, however, the poet will be an old man. At that stage of life, passion and adventure will leave him completely, just as the swans will fly away from the lake at
Coole
Park: “they have flown away”.
This inevitable departure of the swans represents the final stage of the poet’s life when he will be old and frail and unable to even appreciate the beauty and vitality of the swans:
“Among what rushes will they build?”
.Slide29
Theme: change / growing older
Throughout the poem, the swans act as a contrast to the poet. Though he feels the effects of time, the swans do no appear to have changed over nineteen years.
Their bodies are “unwearied”, whereas his has grown old and tired. The swans’ hearts have not “grown old”. They are still filled with
“passion”
and a longing for adventure.
In this way, the swans’ appearance heightens Yeats’ awareness of his own mortality. The swans symbolise that which is eternal. In contrast, the autumnal setting symbolises the mortal world, prone to decay. The poet is very much a part of this world.Slide30
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Symbolism
In a world that is otherwise
“all’s changed” and in a constant change of flux, the swans appear unaltered. As such they come to symbolise something special for the poet. They offer him a sense of something eternal.
The swans are almost certainly not the same ones the poet observed nineteen years previously. Yet they give the appearance of looking no different and it is easy for the poet to imagine that these magnificent creatures have not changed over the years:
“unwearied still”
. Slide31
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Assonance and Alliteration
The poem is rich in assonance and alliteration. Assonance is evident in the repeated ‘I’ sounds in
“Under the October twilight the water / Mirrors a still sky”. Assonance is also evident in the repeated ‘o’ sounds of “now my heart is sore”
.
There is alliteration in the repeated ‘t’ sounds in
“trod with a lighter step”
and the repeated ‘c’ sounds in
“cold companionable”
.
The sounds seem to capture the peace and calm of the evening. Slide32
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Nature Imagery
The description of the landscape through which the poet walks seems to correspond with the way the poet feels about himself and his life.
He is in the
“autumn”
stage of life and like the time of day, he is approaching his
“twilight”
years.
Though the peace and beauty of nature in
Coole
Park is obvious, the stillness and dryness of the landscape also seems to suggest the loss of drive, energy and passion that Yeats discusses. Slide33
Questions
Describe the theme of this poem and explain your personal response to it. Use quotes to provide evidence.
How did Yeats’ use of language (
poetic techniques) help bring the poem to life for you?Slide34
September 1913
‘September 1913’ is a public poem, a political ballad in which Yeats expresses his disillusionment with the Irish middle classes, merchants
and
Catholic Church during the 1913 Dublin Lockout.Slide35
September 1913: stanza one
Yeats believes that for the Catholic middle classes, there are two important things in life: saving money and saying prayers.
They need not concern themselves with anything else. Having taken care of their material and spiritual needs, they want for nothing.
These lines are dripping in sarcasm. Yeats does not believe these people value what is truly important in life. Their devotion to money and religion strikes the poet as pathetic, and he is full of disgust and disdain for the way they live. Slide36
September 1913: stanza one
He pictures them groping about in a dirty till for a few pennies:
“fumble in a greasy till”
. This paints a very unflattering picture of such people, suggesting that there is something grubby, undignified and unsavoury about their activities. He imagines them adding prayer to prayer in the same way they add penny to penny. It’s as if they’re
“saving up”
prayers to secure them against damnation.
He describes the Catholic middle classes’ prayers as
“shivering”
, suggesting that the motivation for prayer is fear rather than spirituality. Slide37
September
1913: stanza two and three
Yeats contrasts the greedy middle-classes with the selfless heroes of Ireland’s
past such as Edward Fitzgerald, Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet and John O’Leary. These heroes, Yeats argues, have little or nothing in common with the penny-pinching merchants of Ireland in 1913: “
Yet they were of a different kind
”.
Yeats imagines the middle-class as children, interrupting their games whenever their parents mention Emmet or Tone, eager to hear tales of heroism and courage:
“the names that stilled your childish play”
.Slide38
September
1913: stanza two and three
This
un-Romantic Ireland is not the Ireland the heroes fought and died for – “for this all that blood was shed”.
Yeats suggests that the middle classes have betrayed the legacy of the heroes they worshipped with they were children. Instead, the country has been turned into a mean and materialistic place. Slide39
September
1913: stanza Four
Yeats believes, that if the heroes came back to life, they would be
mocked and ridiculed by the middle classes who now dominate the country and who are incapable of understanding the heroes’ Romantic idealism and self-sacrifice.
Yeats concludes, that it’s better to let the heroes rest in peace: “
But let them be they’re dead and gone
”.Slide40
Theme: disillusionment
‘September 1913’ is a devastating piece of satire in which Yeats takes the well-off Catholics of Ireland to task not only for their meanness and materialism but also for the shallow nature of their religious devotion.
The image of them adding “prayer to shivering prayer” wonderfully sums up their terrified devotion to the enormously influential Catholic bishops. Slide41
Theme: disillusionment
Yeats declares that through their greed the middle classes have made Ireland a materialistic and un-Romantic place:
“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone”
.The middle classes, Yeats declares, are incapable of understanding Irish heroes’ courage and self-sacrifice. If they were to somehow meet these heroes they would simply call them mad.
“You’d cry, ‘Some woman’s yellow hair / Has maddened every mother’s son’.Slide42
Theme: disillusionment
For Yeats, Ireland at the start of the 20
th
Century, is a society that does not place any value on culture and the arts.
Such a society is not capable of producing heroic men, such as John O’Leary.Slide43
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Form
‘September 1913’ is a political ballad, a type of poem written to publicise a political or social point. Like many Irish political ballads, it personifies Ireland as a female figure, in this case a beautiful woman with
“yellow hair”.
Another feature of ballads the poem uses is a refrain (
a repeated line or lines in a poem or song)
to drum its main point home:
“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone. / It’s with O’Leary in the grave”
. The fact that this refrain concludes each stanza reinforces the difference between the nobility of Ireland’s past and the meanness of its present. Slide44
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Repetition
Like many ballads, the poem uses repetition to emphasise its message. We see this in stanza three with the repeated phrase:
“was it for this?”.
The repetition highlights Yeats’ contempt for the state of contemporary Irish society, contrasting it each time with an aspect of the country’s glorious past. Slide45
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Simile and Metaphor
In line 11 Yeats uses a simile, depicting the names of the heroes as gusts of wind that have blown around the world as they became internationally famous for their courage:
“they have gone about the world like wind”.
In line 17, a metaphor is used to describe the flight of the patriots into exile, depicting them as geese flying over the sea away from Ireland:
“Was it for this the wild geese spread / The grey wing upon every tide”
.Slide46
Questions
Describe the theme of this poem and explain your personal response to it. Use quotes to provide evidence.
How did Yeats’ use of language (
poetic techniques) help bring the poem to life for you?Slide47
Easter 1916
Stanza1
In the first section, Yeats, speaks of “
them” – Pearse, Markiewicz
,
McDonagh
and
MacBride.
It is very clear what Yeats thought of them before the Rising –
he treated them with barely polite
tolerance “polite meaningless words”Last 2 lines- the very people he mocked have risen up in arms against the British, Romantic Ireland has been resurrected but at a very bloody cost:“All changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born”.Slide48
Easter 1916
Stanza 2
Yeats describes some of those that took part in the Rising:“That woman” – Constance
Markievicz
“this man”
– Padraig
Pearse
“This other”
– Thomas
McDonagh
“this other man”- John MacBrideSlide49
Easter 1916
Stanza 2
Yeats He describes how he felt about these people before the Rising. Though he thought
Markievicz beautiful when she was younger, he felt her involvement in politics rendered her ugly. He was scornful and critical of her involvement.
He also described John MacBride, whom Yeats despised for his ill-treatment of Maud Gonne. He describes him as aggressive, drunken, vain:
“a drunken, vainglorious lout”
.Slide50
EASTER 1916
Stanza 2
Yet now, all of these people have become heroes, and in the case of
Pearse, MacDonagh and MacBride, martyrs for the cause of Irish independence. The have been “transformed utterly”
.
They will forever be remembered for their roles in the Rising and in their willingness to sacrifice themselves, have been elevated to the ranks of Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmett.Slide51
EASTER 1916
Stanza
3
Yeats looks at the mentality of people who are willing to lay down their lives for a cause. The hearts of these people have been “enchanted to a stone” and are devoted to one purpose alone.
The image of the
“living stream”
represents life that is always changing and the stone in the middle represents the Irish patriots who are unchanging, inflexible and are fanatical about their cause.
This inflexibility has come at a terrible price, these men are now like stones – they are dead as a result of their inflexible heroism.Slide52
Easter 1916
Stanza
4
Yeats asks of the sacrifice “when may it suffice?” He is filled with sorrow and despair at the blood that has been spilled in the name of Irish freedom.Having celebrated self-sacrifice in the past as something heroic, Yeats is suddenly confronted with the reality of this sacrifice. Men he knew have been shot dead.
When will the sacrifice be enough to get what Ireland wants, Yeats asks. However, he seems to say it is not our place to know the future, that is for
‘Heaven
’
to decide.Slide53
Stanza
4
All we can do is “murmur name upon name”. The spirit of the dead men will be kept alive through the act of remembering them
. He uses a beautiful simile likening those who have died to a child who has fallen asleep after a tiring day: “when sleep at last has come”.
Yeats struggles to understand the meaning of their deaths in the final stanza of the poem. He wants to imagine it is just nightfall for these men but he has to acknowledge the reality – they do not sleep peacefully.
Whether their deaths were in vain or not Yeats decides it is possible to wear green with pride once more, though it comes at a price that is
“terrible”
.Slide54
Theme: sacrifice
In ‘September 1913’ Yeats lamented the fact that Ireland was no longer capable of producing heroic figures such as Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmett, men who were willing to sacrifice their lives for Irish freedom.
He believed if these men were to return to life, the Catholic middle classes would reject them. But the very people that Yeats had written off and ridiculed have now staged rebellion. They have given their lives in order to bring about Irish independence and Yeats is forced to admit he was wrong and re-evaluate his assessment of them. Slide55
Theme: sacrifice
Yeats appreciates that what the rebels have done required incredible courage and conviction but he is also horrified and terrified by what has happened.
Though he once lamented the absence of such heroics in modern Ireland, Yeats can now see the reality of a bloody and brutal uprising. Now that heroes have re-emerged, Yeats is fearful of what it means for the future.
The celebration of these men will inspire others to do the same. War and violence will be seen as the best means for achieving Irish independence: something
“terrible”
has been
“born”
.Slide56
Theme:
sacrifice
Yeats was fascinated by people who were willing to give their lives in the pursuit of their dreams. He does seem to admire the bravery of the rebels, acknowledging the
“beauty” in their heroism. Yet Yeats also recognises that there is something unnatural and troubling about such uncompromising conviction. He is also uncertain that the sacrifice has actually helped accomplish independence.
Yeats, is very possibly, envious of what these rebels achieved in the Rising. By staging this remarkable coup and sacrificing their lives, they have dramatically altered the public’s attitude towards the Irish independence cause. There is no doubt that Yeats held himself in higher esteem than these middle class revolutionaries prior to the Rising, believing his art could have a significant impact on society. Suddenly he must acknowledge that the very men and women he ridiculed have achieved something momentous, something that he can never hope to match through art. And so, in the aftermath of the Rising, Yeats adopts a more humble role. He declares that is not his place to determine what is required to bring about change. All he can do is try to make sense of the events and record the names of those who have given their lives:
“our part / To murmur name upon name”
.Slide57
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Metaphor
Yeats uses the metaphor of the stream to represent life and the manner in which it is constantly moving and changing. He uses the metaphor of the stone to represent the revolutionaries’ unwavering commitment to their cause:
“Hearts with one purpose alone … seem / Enchanted to a stone”.
The revolutionaries’ hearts are like stones because they remain unaffected by the changes that are happening in the world around them, just as a stone lodged in a stream remains unchanged by the water’s flow.
Instead, it’s the stone that affects the water, causing the stream to flow around it:
“To trouble the living stream”
. This suggests the ripple effect that the revolutionaries’ actions and courage had on the entire population.Slide58
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Metaphor
In an effort to soften the tragedy of the rebels’ deaths, Yeats uses the metaphor of sleep:
“What is it but nightfall?” But he is forced to quickly dismiss this analogy, suggesting that there is no way to diminish the shocking reality of what has happened. Slide59
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Repetition
Three of the poem’s four stanzas end with the line,
“A terrible beauty is born”, a refrain that captures the poet’s conflicted feelings about what has happened.
The phrase
“terrible beauty”
is an oxymoron
(a combination of contradictory terms)
because it consists of two opposing ideas. How can something be beautiful and terrible? For Yeats, the sacrifice of the Rising is indeed a thing of
“beauty”
but also
“terrible” because it involves violence and death and the possibility of even more in the future. Slide60
Questions
Describe the theme of this poem and explain your personal response to it. Use quotes to provide evidence.
How did Yeats’ use of language (
poetic techniques) help bring the poem to life for you?Slide61
THE SECOND COMING
Yeats wrote ‘The Second Coming’ in 1919, which was a time of chaos and uncertainty across Europe. The Great War, which was just over, had torn the continent apart, leaving unprecedented disorder in its wake.
It seems, to Yeats, like the entire structure of society is falling to pieces:
“things fall apart”. In a brilliant turn of phrase, Yeats describes how anarchy has been “loosed” or released, as if it were a pack of wild dogs, free to ravage the entire continent.Slide62
The second coming
The poet is also greatly troubled by what he sees as the rise of extremism. We often think of moderate political views as the
“centre”
. More extreme views are associated with the left or the right. When Yeats looks at the world he sees that “the centre cannot hold”. Meanwhile, extreme views seem to be gaining ground.Yeats uses a falconry metaphor to represent this chaos. The bird soars into the air, spiralling and circling out of the master’s grasp. Usually the falconer controls the falcon by means of verbal commands but on this occasion the falcon has wheeled so far into the sky that it can no longer hear him. So too, have the voices of moderation lost control of Europe’s political scene. It seems to Yeats, there are no longer sensible people in charge and events are spinning out of control.Slide63
THE SECOND COMING
1919 was also a time of great violence. The unprecedented slaughter of WWI was barely over when several civil wars broke out across the continent. There were bloody conflicts in Russia, Greece and Germany for instance. Ireland, too, was wracked by the trauma of warfare, as they fought for independence from British rule.
He uses a wonderful metaphor
t
o describe this descent into butchery. He pictures a sea into which an enormous quantity of blood has flown. He imagines this gory ocean thrusting and sweeping forward in a great tidal wave ready to engulf the world:
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed”
.Slide64
THE SECOND COMING
He also believes that while evil men are full of strength, energy and a sense of purpose, good men lack these qualities:
“The best lack all conviction”
.Yeats is convinced that these disturbances, terrible as they are, strike him as mere omens of the ‘Second Coming’. He imagines that the continent will soon face a disaster of apocalyptic proportions, which will make WWI seem tame in comparison. Slide65
EASTER 1916
Throughout his life, Yeats was a great believer in mysticism and the occult. He believed that every two thousand years the dominant culture would fall apart and a new civilisation would replace it. This new one is the reverse of the old.
The
power that Yeats sees replacing Christianity will be brutal and beastly in nature –
“a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun
”.
This beast is a symbol, representing a wave of
“laughing, ecstatic destruction”
that would soon be visited upon the world. Slide66
The second coming
Stanza
4
Yeats declares that evil will triumph because the good people who should defend human values don’t have the determination to stop those in charge. Instead of the second coming of Jesus Christ, an antichrist figure is coming, “its hour come at last”.Slide67
Theme: social upheaval
The poem shows Yeats’ appalled and powerful reaction to the violence and chaos of his time
. To him it seems that the entire world is filled with chaos and confusion. Everywhere the voices of reason and moderation are silenced, while those of intolerance and extremism shout ever louder.
Evil men pursue their goals relentlessly, while the good stand idly by. Civilisation itself seems on the verge of being swept away by a tide of bloodshed. Furthermore, the poem predicts that even greater destruction is on its way, represented by the pitiless beast that “slouches towards Bethlehem to be born”
.Slide68
Theme: social upheaval
Though written in 1919, ‘The Second Coming’ is a poem for our times. In our age too, it seems that
“things fall apart”
, that chaos and anarchy and evil are everywhere. The newspapers are so full of reports from ‘small war’ around the world and mindless terrorist acts that it truly seems as if we’re drowning in a
“blood-dimmed tide”
.
Paying attention to the news confirms Yeats’ belief that evil is triumphing while good people are unable or unwilling to stem the tide. Given the state of our world, it is easy to imagine, as Yeats did, that a great beast of destruction is drawing ever closer. Slide69
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Metaphor and Simile
The falcon spinning out of control serves as a powerful metaphor the chaotic nature of current events.
Equally vivid is the metaphor of the
“blood-dimmed tide”
. This tidal wave of blood-polluted water represents the violence Yeats sees
“everywhere”
in 1919 and the even greater violence he believed was on the horizon.
A wonderful simile is used to describes the beastly creature’s demeanour and facial expression. Yeats declares that it has a
“gaze blank and pitiless as the sun”
. We can imagine the monster’s face being as cruel and emotionless as the scorching sun of the desert. Slide70
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Imagery
The poem is dominated by the unforgettable
“vast image” of the sphinx-like creature awakening in the depths of the desert.
Equally vivid is the image of the birds that have been startled by the beast’s awakening,
“all about it / Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds”
. We can imagine the noise of their angry cawing as they recoil through the air. Slide71
Style: language, tone, technique etc.
Symbolism
The beast described in the poem is a symbol of the terrible destruction Yeats predicts will soon be unleashed on this world.
Yeats’ choice of Bethlehem as the beast’s birthplace is also highly symbolic. Just as Bethlehem was the place where the Christian era began with the birth of Christ, so it is the place where the era will end, with the coming of the beast. This almost blasphemous inversion of the Christmas nativity tale gives the end of the poem real power, real shock value. Many early readers were horrified at the image of the rough,
s
louching monstrosity defiling the holy place of Christ’s birth. Slide72
Questions
Describe the theme of this poem and explain your personal response to it. Use quotes to provide evidence.
How did Yeats’ use of language (
poetic techniques) help bring the poem to life for you?