A Prayer for My Daughter by WB Yeats - an analysis

 

This poem was written by William Butler Yeats for his infant daughter, Anne. He worries about her. Maud Gonne was a radical, opinionated intelligent woman he had loved, but who had rejected his proposals. In this poem he vents his thoughts on her. Georgie Hyde Lees was his wife. ng, 4 Utarid

A Prayer for my Daughter by W.B. Yeats: An Analysis by Claire Wo

Stanza 1: The weather is a reflection of Yeats’ feelings. The post-war period was dangerous. Anne’s vulnerability and innocence is symbolised by the “cradle-hood” and “coverlid.”

“And half hid” shows that Anne is barely protected by the frail “coverlid.”

Anne is oblivious to the violent forces around her; she is ignorant (she “sleeps on”; she is not awake to the violence around her), hence she is “under this cradle-hood” which hides her and is unaffected. (The forces may be riots, violence, starvation, or decay of moral values.) “Under this cradlehood and coverlid/My child sleeps on.” Her ignorance protects her from the uneasy knowledge hence she “sleeps on.”

Robert Gregory died. His father could not protect him from death.

“The roof-levelling wind” is strong, representing frightening, turbulent forces.

“Where by the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,/Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed.” USA was more comfortable compared to Europe. Turbulent forces or “wind” was less significant and more controlled in the USA. Hence it ca be “stayed” or controlled.

Yeats prays because he is gloomy; “great gloom …. In my mind.”

Tone: Frightening, precarious, gloomy.

Literary devices: personification – “the storm is howling” represents threatening external forces e.g. riots, evilness.

Roof-levelling wind represents turbulent forces.

Symbols - “Storm” represents outside forces which threaten Anne’s safety.

“cradlehood” represents Anne’s innocence and infancy.
“coverlid” represents innocence and ignorance, frail protection.
“wind” represents turbulent forces.
“one bare hill” may represent Robert’s death. (Why is the hill bare? Replies are appreciated.) The hill is empty, it may represent his death – there is no one to occupy it. Or it may be a hill where his tombstone lies. As I have said, I have no idea.


Metonym - The author may be mistaken but “Atlantic” may be the United States of America.

Rhyme scheme: aabbcddc

Stanza 2: Yeats is worried about Anne. “Ihave walked and prayed for this young child an hour.” The weather reflects the threatening forces he fears.
“Flooded stream” represents intense forces caused by people as it has strong forces. It is “flooded” because the troublemakers exist in large numbers or the forces are strong. The weather or external forces caused by the war are stormy and destructive. THe “elms” are tossed due to the destructive forces. People (possibly represented by “elms”) are affected.

Tone : intense, anxious, frenetic, chaotic.

This is rather desperate and pessimistic but there is a shift of mood. “Imagining …” When Yeats starts to imagine, he helps his daughter; he decides how she should turn out. This appeases his worries and gives him new ideas and food for thought.. He imagines how her future will be excitedly.

“Imagining…the future years had come/Dancing to a frenzied drum.” Anne’s life will pass in chaos. “Dancing to a frenzied drum” also indicates the passing years in Anne’s life which are represented by drum-beats (which have rhythm and tempo) – which also symbolize violence and chaos. It is a violent and chaotic time. The drum is “frenzied” because of the danger and chaos around Anne. Furthermore, Yeats is excited (hence frenzied) for her to grow up.

Anne’s innocence is juxtaposed with the contrasting “sea” which is “murderous.” The sea represents the world and the crowds around her, and as they are evil, destructive and take advantage of her innocence, they are “murderous.” Moreover, the “sea” or the world is termed as “murderous innocence” because as part of the “sea”, Anne’s innocence is ‘murderous’ to herself because it enables others to manipulate her.

Tone: frenetic, maddening, excited.

Literary devices: symbols - “sea wind” , “flooded stream” – turbulent forces

Personification - “future years … dancing” - the passing years of life

Juxtaposition/oxymoron/paradox – “murderous innocence of the sea”

Sibilance – “sea-wind scream”
Assonance:”sea-wind scream”
Onomatopoeia – “scream”

Stanza 3: Yeats hopes that Anne will be beautiful but not excessively. “May she be granted beauty and yet not/Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught.” Beauty is distracting and destructive, because it causes an admirer to be “distraught” and unhappy as a result of this unfulfilled desire to possess this beauty. Besides, he may desire her negatively and steal her innocence. It inspires passion which may be hopeless. She should not be vain and conceited of her beauty. “Or hers before a looking-glass.) Yeats fears that beauty will make her think that it is sufficient, for beauty would help her. Beautiful people being more attractive can benefit more, and with this attribute, Anne may think that she needs not perform acts of goodness, for her beauty is sufficient to place her in a position of security and acceptance. This causes her to lose “natural kindness”. She does not see or appreciate the values of kindness and virtue. She would think herself superior and strive less without helping others. They do not have to be kind and despise the physically undesirable. Furthermore, their beauty allows them to be fastidious in their choice of partners, having many admirers. Hence, they do not choose the right person as they have no heart or soul. “Lose … the heart-revealing intimacy/ That chooses right.” They cannot love truly and care for veneer and shallow qualities, for they cannot truly feel or know who “the one” is. They are sought for. The right person would in the end be more drawn to a good woman as shown in stanza 5. “Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned.”

Beauty obstructs friendship as being as being beautiful causes one to be condescending, malicious and take things for granted. It causes the loss of human touch for the beautiful may tend to boast and despise their inferiors. They are not true friends. In another perspective, they do not form true friendships because others befriend them for the benefits derived from their appearance and even take advantage of them. The beautiful do not pay attention to those who make true friends as they believe themselves superior in beauty, fashion, etc. etc. Furthermore, excessive beauty results in jealousy and broken friendships. Another point to make is that beauty that over-entices may decrease Anne’s virtue and increase her vulnerability as others wish to use her. This is crucial as in this poem, Yeats emphasizes the need for feminine innocence.

In contrast, a plainer person being on a lower hierarchy will appreciate the importance of kindness. In this context, beauty is equated with society’s shallowness.

Tone: imploring, beseeching, prayer-like, reflective.

Literary devices: personification - “stranger’s eye distraught” - attracts and saddens one who is attracted

Symbol - the “stranger” is an unhappy admirer.
Alliteration - “stranger’s eye distraught”.

Stanza 4 : Yeats speaks of Greek mythology. Helen of Troy, being the most beautiful woman in the world, married Paris, a stupid man. Quote: “Helen being chosen found life flat and dull / And later had much trouble from a fool.” As she was greatly admired and revered for her beauty, life was boring with little strife.

“While that great queen, that rose out of the spray, ‘being fatherless could have her wasy/ Yet chose a bandy-legged smith for man.” Venus or Aphrodite, being fatherless, could marry as she pleased with no parental authority. Yet with all her power and advantages “chose a bandy-legged smith for man” (Hephaestus) – someone inferior to her. She had no father to guide her. Yeats intends to guide his daughter in the choice of a suitable spouse. Yeats is scornful: cultured women make mad choices in spouses. “Fine women eat/ A crazy salad with their meat.” Meat is substantial; salad is not. Meat represents
a fine lady who can be said to be “substantial,” having numerous qualities; the “crazy salad” is their dreadful mate, who is devoid of many qualities. They can have more, but choose worse.

The Horn of Plenty was a horn given by Zeus to his caretaker. The possessor of this Horn would be granted his wishes.
“Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.” This is because Maud Gonne squandered her gifts of intellect, grace and beauty and the benefits she could command by marrying John McBride. She could obtain what she desired with these gifts – similar to the Horn of Plenty – and wasted the aforementioned gifts on McBride. As the Horn of Plenty could bring victuals, John McBride is symbolized as an unsubstantial “salad.” Maud Gonne wasted her supposed power; she could have done better for herself, instead she made the wrong choice or desire.

Tone: cynical, sad, troubled, scornful.
Literary devices: symbol - “Helen”, “Queen” – a beautiful cultured woman or Maud Gonne
“Horn of plenty” - gifts, advantages.
Metaphor - “crazy salad” – an inferior spouse.

Stanza 5: Yeats wants Anne to be courteous. Love does not come freely and
unconditionally. “Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned.” Love is not inspired by mere physical beauty; it is earned by good efforts “by those who are not entirely beautiful” who are kind and helpful. Those who have in stupidity made a fool of themselves by hopelessly loving beautiful women and thought it was reciprocated. “Yet many, tat have played the fool/ For beauty’s very self.” One may not be loved by a beautiful woman. “

“Charm” from a good woman has charmed a man eventually. “has charm made wise.” He becomes “wise” by realizing the goodness of loveing a good woman.

Unsuccessful men have loved and are loved by kind women who make them happy, yet are not beautiful. “Loved and thought himself beloved/ From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.” She “cannot take his eyes” or maptivate him by sight because she is not physically beautiful. But her kindness makes him glad. This could be a reference to Yeats’ wife,, Georgie Hyde Lees who was not beautiful, but they had a happy marriage. Georgie loved him and let him take the credit for her work. The persona praises good unbeautiful women – like Georgie – who re more loved by men compared to harsh beautiful ones – Maud Gonne.

Tome: reflective, advisory, grateful, enlightened.

Literary devices: personification - “glad kindness cannot take his eys”
“charm made wise.”

Symbol - “hearts” – love.Stanza 6: From here onwards, more symbolism and interesting interpretation can be derived. Yeats hopes that his daughter will grow and flourish with virtue and modesty. “May she become a flourishing hidden tree.” She must be “hidden” – not too open and opinionated like Maud Gonne. A “tree” is fresh, soothing and natural. He wants her to be calm, good-natured and natural – not over-influenced by opinionated ideas. (Why not a flower – which is a commonly used to symbolize a girl? Possibly a flower is too attractive and open. Refer to Stanza 3.)

Yeats wishes that Anne will have merry, pleasant thoughts. He wants her to talk of good, pleasant things. “That all her thoughts may like the linnet be, / And have no business but dispensing around / Their magnanimities of sound.” The linnet is a bird which flies, representing a merry, sweet, girl – not too serious, bombastic and violent like Maud Gonne.

Yeats wants Anne to chase and quarrel only in merriment. He wants her to be happy and not too ambitious or opinionated. “Nor but in merriment begin a chase,/ Nor but in merriment a quarrel.” He does not want her to “:chase” ambition ruthlessly. The “quarrel” indicated is mere arguing for fun.

Yeats wants Anne to have a solid home and top be stable. “Rooted in one dear perpetual place.” The home is happy, hence it is “dear.” This may also indicate loyalty to one man. Maud Gonne had consummated a relationship with Lucien Millevoye – with two illegitimate children – and gone on to marry John McBride. Yeats wants Anne to be constant to one man, unlike Maud Gonne.
“O may she live like some green laurel.” Here, Yeats uses mythology. The “green laurel” may refer to the nymph Daphne who was pursued by Apollo. Eager to protect her virtue, Daphne turned into a laurel tree. Similarly, Yeats wants Anne to be virtuous, unlike Maud Gonne. The word “green” in turn may symbolize peace, innocence and youth. We have already mentioned peace – in her home - and innocence. Anne’s youth is not physical but mental. Her father wishes that she will be merry and young at heart. Why green – not red or brown? Russet – reddish-brown – is associated with autumn or middle age and decline. Maud will fade and has declined due to her non-innocence. Her opinions do not denote one who is young at heart. Green denotes being young at heart. It also means inexperience or innocence – something merry, lively and different, a welcome change. For we say inexperienced people are “green”. Yeats does not what his daughter to be dreary and old at soul. Maud is certainly experienced; he wishes for Anne’s mental youth and innocence and vitality also represented by the colour green. For it may indicate evergreenness. Trees that are green are fresh and alive; russet trees are dying and fading. Maud declines because she is experienced and deflowered; her mental youth is gone. Hence Anne is the opposite – green. Anne, being “green” hopefully will retain mental youth with no worse change. 

Tone: hopeful, prayer-like, more positive.

Literary devices: symbol - “hidden tree” – Anne, virtue and modesty
Symbol - “green laurel” – virtue, modesty, mental youth, evergreenness, innocence, inexperience.
Simile - “that all her thoughts may like the linnet be” – that Anne’s thoughts will be pleasant and merry.
Metaphor – “Rooted” – constancy and stability
Metaphor – “One dear perpetual place” – Anne’s home.

Stanza 7: Yeats states that his mind does not benefit but “has dried up of late” or weakened, tired and not stimulated because of the mind of Maud Gonne (whom “I have loved” and whose beauty he admired) barely prospers. He has mentioned her deficiencies. This weakens him. “My mind, because the minds that I have loved, ‘ The sort of beauty that I have approved, / Prosper but little, has dried up of late,”

However, he states that hatred is the worst attribute and “of all evil chances evil.”
“If there’s no hatred in a mind / Assault and battery of the wind / Can never tear the linnet away from the leaf.” The” wind” signifies the destructive forces around Anne and it “cannot tear” Anne – symbolized by a linnet – away form the “leaf” – a fragile place or condition. “Linnet and “leaf” portray something fragile. Sufferings and destructive forces cannot destroy the fragile who do not hate as their minds are clear, calm and free. Negative thoughts make us suffer.

Tone: Sad, stronger, confidents, lecture-like, reflective.

Literary devices: symbol - “wind” – destructive forces
Symbol - “linnet” – Anne
Symbol – “Leaf” – a fragile place or condition.

Personification – “Assault and battery of the wind” – destruction.

Stanza 8: “An intellectual hatred is the worst, / So let her think opinions are accursed.” The hatred of an opinionated intellectual like Maud gonne is the worst because it is strong, destructive, opinionated and the person knows the reason for this hatred. The intellectual resists opposition and fights for his cause. There are good reasons for this cause and hatred. Trivial hatred is weak, for there is little reason. An intellectual, being determined and clever, will fight for a cause with passion and determination. Yeats does not want Anne to be over-opinionated. “So let her think opinions are accursed.”

Yeats states that Maud Gonne had plentiful gifts which she did “barter that horn and every good / For an old bellows full of angry wind.” The horn symbolizes gifts. The “bellows full of angry wind” depict her strong opinions. It can also represent John McBride, who started a riot. Perhaps he could be said to be full of hot air or opinions but little successful effort. “and every good / By quiet natures understood” are her advantages which are understood and appreciated by people with quiet natures (Yeats?). This makes sense especially with McBride’s loudness and abuse of his wife. The “angry wind” is despicable (McBride). Maud did not use her gifts properly, though she had courtesy, grace, ceremony, and aristocracy.

Tone: Lecture-like, reflective, cynical.

Literary devices: Symbol - “Plenty’s horn,” symbolizing gifts and advantages.
Metaphor - “an old bellows full of angry wind” – Strong opinions, John John McBride (the abusive husband of Maud Gonne).

W.B. Yeats as a Romantic Poet

Although W. B. Yeats is a major modern poet and his poems are marked with modern human anxieties and crises, many of his poems contain romantic elements such as subjectivity, high imagination, escapism, romantic melancholy, interest in myth and folklore, etc. Influenced by the romantic poets, Yeats wrote many of his poems, especially his early poems, following the style that the Romantic poets followed. The poet felt so much influenced by the romantic poets that he characterized himself as one of the last romantics. A careful study of his poems will show that his poems that are written in romantic mode are as perfect in romantic qualities as those of Keats or Shelley.
 

“The lake Isle of Innisfree” is one of Yeast’s most famous romantic poems, containing almost all the romantic elements in it. It is a highly subjective and imaginative poem since the isle is not a real place situated anywhere in Ireland, rather an ideal land of romance. The poet has not only created the isle out of his imagination he has also imagined the beauties, sounds and comforts of the place. The isle is so peaceful and comfortable that the poet, tired of the tension and anxieties of town life, wishes to go there to get rid of the weariness of city life and to live alone in the close contact of nature. The place appears so beautiful, comfortable and peaceful to the poet that he decides to build a cottage there with clay and wattles. He also wishes to harvest his food from the isle by planting nine bean-rows and keeping a bee-hive there.

The poet reaches the peak of his romantic imagination when he visualizes peace dropping slowly in the isle from “the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings” and where “midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow and evening is full of the linnet’s wings”.
 

The poet is so fascinated by the charms of the isle that he cannot keep him away from the place. Even when he is busy with his daily life or is standing on the roadway or on the pavements grey, he hears the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.
 

The poem thus contains the essential romantic elements like escapism, love for nature, imagination, subjectivity, dreaminess, romance of imaginary sounds and beauties, etc. Because of the presence of these qualities the poem puts the poet in the direct line of romantics with Keats, Shelley and Wordsworth.
 

“The Stolen Child” is another famous poem of Yeats containing romantic elements. The environment of Sleuth Wood in the lake is so dreamy that fantastic things happen here. There is a leafy island here where flapping herons wake and where the water-rats feel drowsy. The poet along with these herons and water rats walk in the lake all night dancing and mingling hands with the faeries. They leap to and fro in the lake water chasing “the frothy bubbles”. But the real world is not so beautiful and not so free from troubles and anxieties. “While the world is full of troubles/ And is anxious in its sleep”, the rocky highland of Sleuth Wood is full of delights and dreams. That is why the poet invites the peace seeking trouble stricken people to come to this place:
 

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

This poem reminds one of Wordsworth who often, tired of the cruelties of the harsh realities of time, liked to be lost in the lap of nature. Like Keats, Yeats in this poem wants to escape to a dreamy land where he thinks there are no troubles and human anxieties, and the fantasy that the poet creates in the poem out of his imagination places him next to S. T. Coleridge.

“The Wilde Swan at Coole” is another romantic poem of Yeats. The poet appears to be Wordsworthian in delineating the beauty of nature. The poet gives an impressive description of the lake at Coole Park. The poet finds fifty-nine swans perching on the stones of the lake in a beautiful, serene, calm and quiet atmosphere. This bewitching scene of the swans perched on the stones in the lake leads the poet to think of the high quality of life that the swans possess. The swans are beyond the harsh realities of human life while human life here is full of problems and troubles. The poet says of the swans:

Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will
Attend upon them still.

This contrast between the swans and the humans reminds one of the contrast made by Keats between nightingales and humans in his “Ode to Nightingale” where he says of the nightingale: “Thou are not born to death, immortal bird”. Like Keats’ nightingales, Yeats’ swans are not born to death. If an individual swan dies, the race remain and continue. Their hearts remain ever youthful and they can fly wherever they like. They are free and moved by the idea of passion and conquest. Unlike human beings, they are never touched by the onslaught of fever and fret and they do not have to face defeat and broken dream. In this way they become the symbol of immortality and fulfillment.

Like these early poems, some of his later poems also contain romantic elements. One such poem is “Sailing to Byzentium”. Like the lake isle of Innisfree, Byzentium is an ideal place. The poet completely frustrated and fed up by the decadence and degeneration of modern life escapes to the ideal world of Byzentium. This poem also reminds us of Keats’ “Ode to Nightingale”. Like Yeats, Keats frustrated and fed up by the harsh realities of life escape to the world of the nightingale.

Like the Romantics, Yeats had an intense interest in ancient myth and legend. He frequently uses the Greek, Medieval and Irish myths and legends in his poems which take the poet to the remote past. We also find in his poems the use of magic and Irish folkloric beliefs. For example, the use of numbers such as nine, nineteen, fifty-nine, has a magical overtone. In “The lake Isle of Innisfree” he wants to plant nine bean-rows; in “The Wilde Swans at the Coole” he sees fifty-nine swans. In Irish folklore the number nine is a lucky number.

The Romantic poems were subjective poems containing the poets’ personal views and ideas on different things. Many of Yeats’ poems reflect his own personal views and ideas on different things and many of his poems directly take the subject matter from his own personal life. “A Prayer for My Daughter” is one such poem in which the poet prays for some qualities to be possessed by his daughter. “Among the School Children” is another personal poem in which the poet becomes nostalgic wandering in his childhood days. Besides, his personal love with Maude Gonne and his frustration in love with her have been the themes of many of his poems. His bitter feelings about Maude Gonne’s attitude towards him also have romantic overtone.

In the light of the above discussion, we can say that W. B. Yeats is a poet of the romantic mode. His highly imaginative mind, tendency to escape to the ideal world to get rid of the cruel realities of time, love for nature, desire to pass time alone and to find comfort in the lap of nature, use of myth, legend, magic and Irish folkloric beliefs, expression of his personal views and ideas, incorporation of his personal sufferings and frustrated feelings—all these put the poet in the direct line with the Romantics.

Early and Later Poems of W.B.Yeats: A Contrast

The poetry of W.B Yeats distinctively falls into two groups namely the early poems and the later poems.  As a poet Yeats always wrote poetry basing on the Irish themes and subjects. But in treating the Irish elements Yeats time to time changed the subject matters and the style. In the early poems, for example, Yeats explored the themes of Irish folklore and myths,themes and settings to create a modern sophisticated poetry.The Irish themes come into his poetry as the rememberence of the glorious past,the myths and legends,the landscape, and the Irish mythological heroes. 

During his early career, Yeats’ own interest in mythology and the oral traditions of folklore combined with high sense of nationalism inspired him to create a poetry rich in the treatment of Celtic folklore and mythology.So,the subject matter of his early poetry  consists of the traditional Celtic folklore and myth. By incorporating into his work the stories and characters of Celtic origin, Yeats endeavored to encapsulate something of the national character of his beloved Ireland.

Even in the early poems, with the passing of time, the poet makes increasing use of Irish myths and legends. He revives the old Irish myths and legends as well as `makes new myths out of the old  ones and in this way seeks to bring about a political and a literary renaissance. Poetry thus fuses with patriotism, and he may fittingly be called the first national poet of young Ireland. He now sings in his poetry of ancient Gaelic heroes, like King Fergus. Aengus,Cuchulan,Queen Maeve, Oisin etc.

The heroic life and adventures of these ancient, legendary figures form the subject of Yeats’ early ballads. Earlier he had advised the young poets of Ireland to choose subjects from their own native land where,’there is no river or mountain that is not associated in the memory with some legend or event,”  and if, the ballads he deals with deal with such local traditions as well as with legends which have a more national character.

Yeats’ early poetry is frankly an escape poetry. It takes us into a world of phantasy, a dream-world, a world of Irish countryside, folk-lore peasant beliefs and traditions. The poet escapes from the world of reality into an ideal fairy-world of Irish mythology. In the beginning his dream world is merely a beautiful, ideal region in the thinned out English romantic tradition. The influences on him are English, Arcadian, Spenerian and Shelleyian, and even in his treatment of the Irish themes he displays.

Now let us discuss some individual poems to see how he treated Irish elements in his early poems.The poems that clearly reflect his interest in Irish myths and legends are ’The Stolen Child’,Fergus and the Druid’, Cuchulain’s Fight with the Sea’,The Hosting of the Sidhe’,Th Wild Swans a t Coole’,Coole Park,Coole Park and Ballylee, At Galway Races, The Ballad of Moll Magee” , “The Ballad of Father Gilligan etc.

Yeats’s first notable interest in Irish materials is seen in his early poem ’The Stolen Child’.The poem is based on Irish legend and Irish setting.The poem,in which a fairy speaks to a human child in a beguiling voice ,is set in Sligo,where the yeats used to spend their holidays.The voice calls

Where dips the rocky highland

Of Sleuth Wood in the lake

There lies a leafy island

Where flapping herons wake

The drowsy water rats;

There we’ve hid our faery vats

Full of berries

And of reddest stolen cherries.

The names of the places mentioned in the poem are located in Sligo and the poem reflects the poet’s interest in the belief in the supernatural that he found in the west of Ireland,in particular the idea that the faeries carried off children from the human world.

Yeats’s treatment of Irish materials ,specially the old legends and sagas are also seen in his work The Rose.In this collection specially two poems - Fergus and the Druid’, Cuchulain’s Fight with the Sea’ are full of Irish elements.The former deals with the Ulster’s legendary king Fergus,who married Ness.The poem is a conversation between the Druid and Fergus,who was persuaded by his wife Ness to allow Ness’s son (by previous marriage) MacNessa to rule the country for a year.But when the king gave the power,he was trickily driven out of the country at the end of the year.Fergus passed his days hunting,fighting,and feasting.Thus,the poem is based on an Irish saga.

The poem ’Cuchulain’s Fight with the Sea’  deals with the Irish Achilles or the Hercules Cuchulain.The poem is about the death of Cuchulain,the greatest Irish mythological hero,who appears many times throughout Yeats' work.

The legend of Cuchulain goes back to the pre-Christain time.He appears in the Ulster Cycle of stories.Cuchulain,the superhuman warrior figure had a divine from the supernatural father figures such as Conall Cernach.As a youth, Cuchulain defeats one hundred and fifty of King Conchobar's troops on his way to the royal court. Suffice to say that Cuchulain is the hero most identified with Ireland and represents both positive and negative aspects of the Irish people and their struggle.

In the poem, " To Ireland in the Coming Times" Yeats again draws upon Irish folklore and mythic symbols and sets them against a backdrop of national identity. When the poet writes, " When Time began to rant and rage / The measure of her flying feet / Made Ireland's heart begin to beat; " He is speaking of the affects of the industrial revolution," When Time began to rant and rage." How the pre-industrial rhythm of life had been interrupted by the hourly wage in the cities, as opposed to the pastoral life of the country that was governed by the changing of the seasons, rather than the movement of the hands of a clock. This accelerated pace of life and of time," The measure of her flying feet," was reviled by Yeats and he wrote of his distaste of current English life, referring to passions that a man might yet find in Ireland, "love of the Unseen Life and love of country."

In the collection The Rose,Yeats emphasizes Irish imagery; the rose, the faeries and the Druid that are all closely associated with Ireland and are used here to disparage the rigid and structured English world view.

Another poem that illustrates how Yeats melds folklore and nationalism is "The Song of Wandering Aengus." In the poem, Yeats refers to Aengus, the Irish god of love. He was said to be a young, handsome god that had four birds flying about his head. These birds symbolized kisses and inspired love in all who heard them sing.The poem deals with the shape-changing of the fairies and tells a story in which a fish is transformed into a beautiful woman whom Aengus spends the rest of his life trying to find. In the poem, Yeats strays from the actual myth of Aengus. Yeats wrote, "Though I am old with wandering/ Through hollow lands and hilly lands." In the actual myth, Aengus was still young when he found his love. "The Song of Wandering Aengus" was about longing and searching, rather than about a song of found love.

Thus,Yeats took inspiration from the myths and legends of ancient Ireland in order to create a conspicuously Irish literature.

Yeats’s later poems

Yeats believed the idea that poetry should be changed to adjust the changes around us.So, with the passage of time his poetry also changed. In his later poems he wrote about the contemporary political and cultural issues that concered his Ireland istead of about the Irish myths and legends. The other features of the later poetry include the richness, complexity and intricacy. This richness arises more particularly from his blending together of images drawn from widely divergent sources and from different layers of experience.

Yeats brings together varied and desperate images from different levels of experience and different levels of history, and is able in this way to enclose incredible vastness within the limited space of a short lyric.The greatness of Yeats is seen in the fact that his mind now moves with great agility from one disparate concept to another, and the poet succeeds in bringing together and reconciling the opposites of life. 

The later poems display Yeats’ mythopoetic imagination to its best advantage. The poet’s mastery over his craft is further seen in the fact that words obey his call and he uses them like a master with perfect ease and self-confidence to express swift transitions in thought, often highly abstract thought.

Yeats’ later poetry also shows his skilful manipulation of the most varied stanza-patterns. As some one has rightly remarked, the credit of freeing English lyric from the tyranny of the Iambic must go to Yeats.

The changes in Yeats’s poerty are visible in his ’The Green Hemlet and Other Poems’.Two poems of the collection clearly reflect his new nationalism.These are In Upon a house Shaken by the Land Agitation and At Galway Races.

In Upon a house Shaken by the Land Agitation Yeats makes an explicit and timely comment upon a  political issue.The title of the poem refers to Land Reform ,an important movement in 19th century Irish legislation to bring agriculture and the peasantry out of the incredibly impoverished past by changing the relation between landlords and tenant.The 1903 Wyndham Land Act provided for bonuses to landlords who sold property to tenants on easy terms. Aaccording to the legislation the tenants were able to buy thier farms.Here the house stands for aristocracy,tradition,the Anglo-Irish inheritance,and social stability.Yeats believed in aristocracy.Like Nietzsche he also believed that the rare thing is for the rare people,great things for the great people.This view is reflected in the poem.

Another later poem, "At Galway Races," illustrates how Yeats work was evolving, but the theme of Ireland was still the most lasting message in his works.

"Sing on: somewhere at some new moon,

We'll learn that sleeping is not death,

 Hearing the whole earth change its tune

Its flesh being wild, and it again

 Crying aloud as the racecourse is,

 And we find hearteners among men

That ride upon horses"

Yeats is not only celebrating horse racing, which is the national sport of Ireland, it is celebrating the endurance of Ireland during its troubles with Great Britain, and celebrating the strong backbone of the Irish, who are men "that ride upon horses." Yeats work literally breathes Ireland in every line, and there is no doubt that Yeats loved this unique land, and wanted to share that love with people the world over."

In another poem namely ’Easter 1916’ Yeats also deals with a contemporay political issue.The poem commemorates the Easter Rising of 24 April 1916 when the memebers of the Irish Republican Brotherhood under the leadership of Patricia Pearse rose against British rule of Ireland.The rising was subdued and the ring leaders were put to death.The poem carefully expresses an ambiguous attitude of quallified support for the rebels.Like the rebels Yeats was also willing to free Ireland from all kinds of English dominance but he hated the violence.He indirectly accused the rebels for overtuning the works of years and felt very despondent about the future.

His such poems as The Wild Swans a t Coole’,Coole Park,and Coole Park and Ballylee also bear his nationalism.Yeats uses swan as a symbol of tranquility,beauty,and pride-the typical Irish characteristics in his poetry.These poems are also in the descriptions of the Irish landscapes.

His another remarkable poem ’Leda and the Swan’ can also be interpreted as literary attack against England’s harsh treatment of Irland.The sonnet composed in 1923 refers to the myth of the rape of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan.The poem represents the dominance of Swan over Leda.Yeats’s uses of such imageries as ’ a sudden blow’,’the staggering girl’,’caught in the bill’ clearly picture the violence used by Zeus.Here the relation between Leda and Swan is the relation of that of the oppressed and the oppressed,the colonized and the colonizer.As it is clear the colonizer is England and the colonized is Ireland.The former excercised violence against the later.The interpretaion seems to be convincing if we consider the time of its composition.

Yeats had a high sense of nationalism.His defth of nationalism becomes more evident if we compare his work with the works of T.S Eliot.Eliot took Europe and its war-fragmented culture as its Waste Land.So,the English poets became disillusioned with their country after the first world war.But Yeats,who spent two thirds of his life out of Ireland still retained Ireland as his imaginative homeland.

Yeats’s sense of nationalism is also seen from the fact that he often made a contrast between peaceful Ireland and industrial England.He also compared the Irish mythology culture with the cultures of classical Greece and Byzantium.

Thus, we see that there are some marked contrasts between his early and later poems. During his early career Yeats was devoted to the cause of Irish nationalism and played a significant part in the Celtic Revival Movement, promoting the literary heritage of Ireland through his use of material from ancient Irish sagas. In contrast to his early poems  his later works, also the more famous works, deal with the contemporay as well as Yeats’s personal and philosophical issues.

W.B. Yeats as a Modern Poet

William Butler Yeats, one of the modern poets, influences his contemporaries as well as successors, such as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and W.B. Auden. Though three common themes in Yeats’ poetry are love, Irish Nationalism and mysticism, but modernism is the overriding theme in his writings. Yeats started his long literary career as a romantic poet and gradually evolved into a modernist poet. As a typical modern poet he regrets for post-war modern world which is now in a disorder and chaotic situation and laments for the past.  Yeats as a modern poet is anti-rationalist in his attitude which is expressed through his passion for occultisms or mysticism. He is a prominent poet in modern times for his sense of moral wholeness of humanity and history.

Now, a comparative study of Yeats with his contemporary poets is necessary. Yeats and Eliot are two famous contemporary poets and it is believed that, Yeats is the seed of modernism where, Eliot is the tree of that seed. Eliot has a great influence on Yeats. Both have certain things in common. Both are intensely aware of man in history and of the soul in eternity. Both at times see history as an image of the soul writ large. Another important similarity of Yeats with other modern poets such as Eliot, Pound is that they lament for the past and tend to escape from present miserable condition toward an illusionary Eden. In this regard Yeats differs from Auden, who celebrates all disorder conditions of his time into his poetry.

Yeats as a modern poet: Yeats, like T. S. Eliot, is a representative modern poet and presents the spirit of the age in his poetry. Like Eliot, Yeats also uses myth, symbolism, juxtaposition, colloquial language and literary allusions as a device to express the anxiety of modernity. After the World war-I people got totally shattered and they suffered from frustration, boredom, anxiety and loneliness. Yeats has used different type of landscape to symbolize the spiritual and psychological states of modern man.

Analysis of his poems: Now, let us analyze some of his poems individually to trace out modern elements –

“The Second Coming” is a superb example of Yeats’ modernism as in this poem Yeats portrays the modern chaotic and disorder condition after World War I and the poet tends to escape from this situation.

The very begging lines of the poem represent the chaotic situation of the modern world—

“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 first image with which we are presented in the poem is an image of disaster; a falcon cannot hear the call of safety, and begins to spiral wider and wider, more out of control. The falcon which represents civilization is no longer in a position to listen to intellect. The centre is unable to hold its own. As a result, things are falling apart and what results from this disintegration is a kind of complete anarchy bringing alone with it a lot of bloodshed.  Such disorder condition also effects the religion that Yeats believes  much chaos has entered in Christianity as it has lost its effect and now it is about to end. The good people sadly lack conviction, while the bad pursue their wicked ends with passionate intensity. The second coming is at hand. This coming prophet will be the prophet of destruction. The falcon, symbolizing intellectual power, has got free of the control of the falconer, representing the heart or soul. 

Then, a powerful expression of Yeats’ agony facing old age appears at the beginning of “Sailing to Byzantium”:

“That is no country for old men. The young/ In one another’s arms, birds in the tress/ Those dying generations – at their song.”

In yeats poem there is no place for old things. Yeats sees old age as a symbol of the tyranny of time. Rage against the limitations of age and society upon an old man occurs frequently in his poetry. In “Among School Children” he considers himself a comfortable scarecrow. The heart becomes ‘comprehending’, unfortunately attached to a ‘dying animal’. In “The Tower”, Yeats calls the aged body an ‘absurdity’.

In the poem “A Prayer For My Daughter”, Yeats is ever so worried with the present disorder situation and moreover the upcoming dangerous future that is near to the next generation. In this poem Yeats wishes to his daughter some abstract qualities with those she will be able to face the upcoming challenges of future. In the poem, Yeats’ prayer is not only for his daughter but also for all people of future generation.

In “Easter 1916”, Yeats sense of humanism is seen which is another modern trait in literature. The horrible effects of war cast a gloomy shadow on the poetic sensibility of the modern poets. The sad realities of life paved the way of humanitarian aspect in modern literature. Yeats’ poetry also abounds in humanism. In this poem, he feels even for his rival. He says:

“He had done most bitter wrong/ To some who are near my heart,”

Yeats’ use of symbols is another modern trait in his poetry which is complex and rich. He is the chief representative of the Symbolist Movement. He draws his symbols from Irish folklore and mythology, philosophy, metaphysics, occult, magic, paintings and drawings. Several allusions are compressed into a single symbol. His symbols are all pervasive key symbols. His key-symbols shed light on his previous poems and “illuminates their sense”. ‘The Rose’, ‘Swan’ and ‘Helen’ are his key-symbols. Symbols give ‘dumb things voices, and bodiless things bodies’ in Yeats’ poetry.

Thus, on the basis of our above discussion we can rightly say that Yeats is one of those celebrated modern poets, who flourished in the beginning of the twentieth century and created their own style of poetry in order to show their dissatisfaction with the world.