Themes in Yeats’ Poetry

Themes in Yeats meter You can ingest a chance compositiony points in Yeats poetry. Pick what suits your own essay from the themes, comments and quotes listed below. There are 86 quotes used to illustrate themes on this raps jawion (although some of them are from poems outside the current OCR selection for AS Level). You depart need only a short selection of these. 1. The theme of final stage or h peerlessst-to-god age and what it leaves behind. Death of Patriotism, leaving selfishness as the average Romantic Irelands unwarranted and gone, Its with OLeary in the expunge September 1913 Death as useless sacrifice, Home Rule might be granted Was it needless death after entirely?For England may pro dour faith For any that is done and said Easter 1916 A man in former(a) age alienated vibrant youthfulness The young in one an differents arms, birds in the trees Those dying generations at their boyg Sailing to Byzantium Death of innocence The ceremony of innocence is drowne d Second sexual climax The self in hoary age, forsaken by beauty when I awake some day to find they fix flown for state of ward Wild Swans Death chosen out of a signified of despair A waste of breath the years behind, in rest with this behavior, this death Airman Death and destruction during civil war A man is killed, or a house burned the empty house Stares Nest Demise of the Aristocracy and despair at the vanity of human sizeableness We the great gazebo built Memory Old age and the remnants of a control life Picture and book remain Acre In old age, condescension for the present, defiant admiration for ancestry pasture your heading on former(a) days That we in coming days may be hush the indomi get across Irishry under Ben Bulben Facing death with contempt for overstated ceremony No marble, no conventional accent Under Ben Bulben Death provides a sanctuary from action and hatred Savage indignation there tailnot lacerate his breast Swifts Epitaph 2. The theme of di sintegration, chaos, sudden change They have gone about the humans like wind September 1913 scatter wheeling in great unconnected rings Upon their clamorous wings Wild Swans I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, And direct my touchwood is sensible. Alls changed Wild Swans this tumult in the clouds Airman All changed, changed short A terrible beauty is born(p) Easter 1916 Enchanted to a muffin To trouble the living stream Easter 1916 Things fall apart the centre cannot submit Mere tumult is loosed upon the earth Second Coming Consume my flavour away disgusted with desire And fastened to a dying animal It k straightaways not what it is Sailing to Byzantium A man is killed, or a house burned, still no absolved fact to be discerned Stares Nest 3.Yeats poetry explored personality under four-spot headings Transience in natures beauty A apparition of cloud on the stream Changes minute by minute Easter 1916 By what lakes edge or pool Delight mens eye when I awake s ome day To find they have flown away? Wild Swans The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long any(prenominal) is begotten, born, and dies Sailing to Byzantium that a raving autumn shears bloom of youth from the summers wreath Memories Paradoxically, Yeats saw nature as unfading in comparison to humans Their wagon have not grown old dearest or conquest, wander where they will, Attend upon them still. Wild Swans The radiance of natures beauty I hear lake water lie with low sounds by the shore Inisfree The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky Wild Swans The long-legged moor-hens dive, And hens to moor-cocks call Easter An acre of green grass For air and exercise Acre The unattractive side of nature The bees build in the crevices Of loosening masonry, and there The sire birds bring grubs and fly Stare while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant de sert birds Second Coming 4. Yeats explored the theme of im mortality rate in various spheres.You can contrast the following quotes and issues with the many quotes and references to mortality highlighted in the quotes for themes one, two and three above. Politicsin a chimerical way the Ri blabber has changed politics and this force for change has become an immortal and steadfast national symbol Now and in time to be, wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly A terrible beauty is born Easter 1916 Natural beautythe swans as a species are ageless in comparison to Yeats Their hearts have not grown old Passion or conquest, wander where they will, Attend upon them still. Wild Swans The cycles of history perpetually repeating millennial patterns And what ungainly beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Second Coming The consciousness and art transcend time Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make to sing Of what is past, or passing, or to come Sailing to Byzantium 5. The quest for the true is fundamental, whether experienced through with(predicate) the emotional self, reason, mental imagery or at the expense of sanity. Intuitive lawfulness I hear it in the deep hearts mettle Inisfree The pursuit of national ideals at the cost of public ridicule slightly womans yellow hair Has maddened every mothers son They weighed so lightly what they gave September 1913 Pursuit of beauty and accuracy by a questioning spirit Among what rushes will they build, By what lakes edge or pool Delight mens eyes when I awake some day To find they have flown away? Wild Swans loyalty believed in by political fanatics Hearts with one direct alone Through summer and winter seem Enchanted to a stone Easter 1916 Truth that is fanatical and yet unemotional Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart Easter 1916 Truth that is emotional, imaginative and phil osophical A lonely impulse of ship Drove to this tumult in the clouds I balanced all, brought all to mind Irish Airman Truth that is prophetic and yet based on historical cycles surely some revelation is at hand Surely the Second Coming is at hand Second Coming Cold, rational analysis of falsehood leading to the truth We had ply the heart on fantasies, The hearts grown savage from the come up More Substance in our enmities Than in our love Stare Truth attained through educating the imagination with art Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence Sailing to Byzantium Truth that is philosophical, the wisdom of old age Dear shadows, now you know it all, All the folly of a oppose With a common wrong or right. The innocent and the beautiful. charter no enemy but time Memories Truth that eludes reason and imagination Neither loose imagination, Nor the mill of the mind Consuming its rag and bone, Can make the truth known Acre Contrast between a aflam e confession and political truths And maybe what they say is true Of war and wars alarms, But O that I were young again And held her in my arms Politics Truth that is sentimental, defiant, emotional Cast your mind on other days That we in coming days may be calm the indomitable Irishry Ben Bulben 6. Yeats had various visions of the model Irish society.Primitive, Celtic, peasant and rural I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made Inisfree Romantic, patriotic and heroic Yet they were of a different kind, The names that stilled your childish play, They have gone about the world like wind September 1913 Pastoral and aesthetic But now they botch up on the still water, Mysterious, beautiful Wild Swans Comely and simple My county is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartans slimy Irish Airman Aristocratic, severalizeical and youthful and speak of that old Georgian mansion, recall That table and the talk of youth, Two girls in silk kimonos, both Beautiful, one a gazelle Memories Heroic, feudal and ancestral Sing the peasantry, and then Hard-riding country gentlemen, The holiness of monks, and after Porter-drinkers randy laughter Sing the lords and ladies gay That were beaten into the clay Through vii heroic centuries Cast your mind on other days That we in coming days may be clam up the indomitable Irishry Under Ben Bulbens Head 7.Yeats explored conflicting dualities, often counterbalancing the ideal and the real The beauty of nature versus the unplayful monotony of city existence I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey Inisfree The meanness of municipal policy versus the benignity of patriots For men were born to pray and part with Romantic Irelands dead and gone September 1913 Mortality of the self versus immortality of the swan species And now my heart is sore Their hearts have not grown old Wild Swans Major Robert Gregorys am biguous approach to fighting for his country this involves inversion of emotion Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love Irish Airman The immortality of political heroes versus the fickleness of politics Yet they were of a different kind, The names that stilled your childish play September 1913 Yet I number him in the song He, too, has resigned his part In the routine clowning Easter 1916 The inversion of the relationship between commitment and clean-livingity The best inadequacy all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate earnestness Second Coming Soul versus Body and Nature versus Art O sages be the singing-masters of my soul.Consume my heart away Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing Sailing to Byzantium Love versus hatred, moral inversion More substance in our enmities Than in our love Stare age versus beauty But a raving autumn shears Blossom from the summers wreath The innocent and the beautiful Ha ve no enemy but time Memories Love versus politics as a shaper of human destiny How can I, that girl stand up there, My trouble fix On Roman or on Russian Or on Spanish politics Politics The contemporary versus the historical, the plebs versus the aristocracy, the masses versus ancestors Base-born products of base beds Still the indomitable Irishry Under Ben Bulben Two contradictory positions on the duality of life and death, one neutral, the other favouring death as a refuge from the stresses of life Cast a cold eye On life, on death Under Ben Bulben lively has sailed into his rest Savage indignation there Cannot lacerate his breast Swifts Epitaph 8. Yeats made various protests against reality during his life Alienation from city life in London While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey Inishfree Despondency at short sighted and selfish civic attitudes regarding the 1913 lockout and hypocritical religious devotion You have dried the bosom from the bone?For men we re born to pray and save Romantic Irelands dead and gone, Its with OLeary in the grave September 1913 Hurt at disrespect for the memory of political martyrs Youd cry, Some womans yellow hair Has maddened every mothers son They weighed so lightly what they gave September 1913 Disillusionment at war Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love Airman Disgust at insincere nationalism, patriotic gas Being certain that they and I But lived where motley is worn The casual comedy Easter 1916 Criticism of political fanaticism Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart. Easter 1916 Disillusion at war, lack of civic responsibility and an apocalyptic spiral Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The lood-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 Second Coming disillusion at materialism, hedonism and neglect of art Caught in that sensual music all negl ect Monuments of unageing intellect Sailing to Byzantium Anger at the inhumanity of political ideologies We had fed the heart on fantasies, The hearts grown brutal from the fare More substance in our enmities Than in our love Stare Rage at the pettiness of national politics for men were born to pray and save September 1913 Conspiring among the ignorant Memories Fierce resistance in old age to the expiry of the mind Grant me an old mans frenzy, Myself must I remake Acre Mockery of world affairs How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on Russian Or on Spanish politics? Politics Yeats Fascistic or class hatred against the Irish working class Scorn the sort now growing up All out of shape from toe to top, Their unremembering hearts and heads Base-born products of base beds Ben Bulben Dislike of pompous burials No marble, no conventional phrase Ben Bulben Contempt for materialistic and unthinking people Imitate him if you dare, World-besotted traveller Swift