W. B. Yeats's Poems

 Thinking Activity:- W. B. Yeats's Poems

Hello Readers! This blog is in response to the Thinking Activity which is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English, MKBU. This blog is dealing with two poems of W. B. Yeats, ' The Second Coming' and 'On Being Asked for War Poem'. 

Introduction of Poet :-

W. B. Yeats ( 1865-1939 ):-

He was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the  greatest poet of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1922 he became a senate of the Irish state. He won the Nobel prize in literature in 1923. He is also known as a Symbolist poet. His use of symbols is physical that is both itself and a suggestion of other, perhaps immaterial, timeless qualities. He was deeply rooted in Irish Culture with its Folklore. In 1899 he fell in love with Maud Gonne,  a beautiful actress and passionate Irish nationalist who refused to marry him and she is the subject of most of his love poems. His Notable poems are as below.

• The Tower
• A prayer for my Daughter
• The Second Coming
• The Wandering of Oisin
• On Being Asked for War Poem
• In Memory 
• Sailing to Byzantium

The Second Coming:-

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The Falcon cannot hear the Falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned ;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out 

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in Sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

 

The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep 

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Second Coming is a Poem. It was written in 1919 and first published in 'The Dial' in 1920. And Afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robertes and the Dancer. Poem is also known as the Apocalyptic poem. It is considered a major work of Modernist poetry. The poem was written in 1919 in the Aftermath of the first World war and the beginning of the Irish war of independence. 

Use of Symbols in Poem:-

This poem is known as  the Symbolist poem. Poet use the different symbols like Spiritus Mundi, Winding Gyres and Falcon. The Falcon is described as "Turning in a Winding Gyres" until it can no longer "hear the Falconer", its human master. A gyre is a spiral that expands outwards as it goes up. Yeats uses the image of Gyres frequently in his poems to describe the motion of history towards chaos and instability. Spiritus Mundi is a Latin term that literally means, world spirit. In the poem, according to W. B. Yeats, "a universal memory and a muse of sorts that provides inspiration to the poet or writer. Its simple meaning is a shape with lion body and the head of a man. This makes it similar to a sphinx or a Manticore, both of which were mythical creatures said to be predatory towards humans.

The Second Coming as Pandemic Poem:-

The poem is also connected with flu e Pandemic (1918-1919). His wife George Hyde-less caught the virus and was very close to death. In that period the highest ratio of death was among  pregnant women, around 70% of pregnant women were dying because of influenza. This information easily helps us to read poem as war poem or flu e pandemic poem. Elizabeth Outka in her text "Viral Modernisms: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature" explain about pandemic. 

We have seen this condition in the corona pandemic when the people were dying and getting infected by the Corona Pandemic. We can imagine the Influenza Pandemic must be the reason behind writing these lines: 'centre cannot hold' the things were in control and everything was 'Falling apart'.

So we can say that in this poem, Yeats suggests that out of the Chaos of that era, something is arising that is darker and more evil. Good people don't know what is worthy for them and bad people are full of desire and intensity. Presentation of W. B. Yeats and his poems are as below.

 

On Being Asked for War Poem:-

I think it better that in times like these

A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth

We have no gift to set a statesman right;

He has had enough of meddling who can please

A young girl in the indolence of her youth,

Or an old man upon a winter's night.

About Poem :-

This poem was written in 1915 and published the following year. It was first published in Edith Wharton's The Book of the Homeless in 1916. It was later reprinted in The Wild Swans at Coole. It's one of Yeats's shortest well-known poems, comprising just six lines, and sets out why Yeats chooses not to write a 'War Poem' for Publication. Years changed the poem's title from "To a friend who has asked me to sign his manifesto to the neutral nations" to "A Reason for Keeping Silent" before sending it in a letter to James, which Yeats wrote at Coole Park on August 20, 1915. 

Structure of Poem :-

It is a small six line poem with an ABC ABC rhyming scheme. Here we find a contradiction where the poet is writing in the poem that he or she should remain silent it seems the poet has used Metonymy.

Analysis of Poem:-

The poem is a response to the request of a friend to write a political poem in response to war. The poem begins with a question about the role of the poem in society. As Shelley, a great Romantic Poet, once called poets "the acknowledged legislators of the world". An ancient philosopher, Plato, even thought that poetry should be banned as corrupting and  that poetry should be banned as corrupting to society. The poem's line ' A poet's mouth be silent', indicate that Yeats is supporting Plato's view of the poet being silent 'in times like these' which suggests the time like war, the difficult time of the nation or the world. 

'We have no gift to set a statesman right',third line  suggests that if poet or writer speak or write about political leader or issues they have no rights. 'He has had enough of meddling who can please' in the forth lines of the poem that can be read in the two ways as a statesman. As the words statesman is used recently we will first read with that Statesman have done enough 'medding' the other word used for interference in the life of a youth and the life of the old man. And in other way we can read with positive connotation that youth and the old both the generation enjoy with its romantic verses while old enjoys his Ballads. 

This poem is a contradictory poem, it has an act of refusal as assent. It consists of an air of irony. The poet himself is asking poet's to be silent and he himself is writing through a poem. In a letter of the same year, sent to John Quinn, Yeats wrote that the first world war was 'merely the most expensive outbreak of insolence and stupidity the world has ever seen and I give it as little thought as I can'. Also his poems like 'Easter 1916', 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death' suggest his unhappiness towards the war. Ireland was a colony of the British, Irish soldiers had to fight a war not of their patriotic duty but by force of Britisher. We can interpret that it might also be the reason why poet is not interested in wars. Irish people were fighting in war but they had no profit, they were bounded by Britishers. So we can say that poem is about refusing to write a war poem when asked to produce one. For easy and better understanding about poem below,  the video is very useful.

Conclusion:-

Thus, we can say that Both poems 'The Second Coming' and 'On Being Asked for War Poem' are considered  war poems. Biography of W. B. Yeats is vividly reflected in his poems. We find almost all cultures and traditions as well as history of Irish people in his poems. As his career developed and literary innovations came with modernism in the early decades of the 20th century, Yeats's work retained its focus on traditional verses forms and rhyme scheme, but he became more political, more allusive, and more elliptical.

Words count:- 1,515

Image:- 4

Video:- 2

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