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Yeats Essay

"Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry". To what extent is this address to
Yeats justified by those of his poems you have read?

Yeats himself once wrote, "the arts are at th-dr. best, when they are
busy with battles that can never be won". As with much of Yeats'
writings, this statement could be interpreted as having two different
meanings; the most conclusi6h is the that Yeats is attempting to explain
, how Ireland, an impoverished country committed to defeat managed to
)'r'' produce such a sudden efflolgqce of literature in the early 20th century.
On a different level though it also casts doubt on the political battles sf j.,,';; i
his friends and associates who had dedicated their lives to the cause.,v i|'''"i
When considering this address to Yeats it is important to put him
. and his work within the social events of the time, in particular what state
of affairs Ireland and the rest of Europe were in during the period of
v, Yeats'lifetime.
The 1840's are generally regarded as the beginning of "Modern
Ireland" these years saw the beginning of much of the revolutionary
activity in Ireland with the rise and fall of Daniel O'Connel's campaign to
repel the Act of Union with England. These years were filled with
bioodshed, national tragedy and economic ruin and the famine. Research
into the aftermath of such disasters as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki has shown the complexity of the psychological reactions
whercby the victims of catastrophes tend to blame themselves. This was
r{,,...i ' true for the Great Hunger, which was considered an'Act of God', "it is
,:i ;:, "ip the will of God, let God's will be done." Yeats was obviously affected by
)r'. '1 L'r''' ' ' this referring to it in his play "The Countess Cathleen" stating how "Satan
r.

pours the famine from his bag". This suggests that Yeats was affected by
what was seen as the religious significance of an event which occurred
over a decade before he was even born. v. v r{rr r { ''" r t

The hopeless uprising of 1848, the same year as the European

revolutions,generated such feelings that survived and were still very much
u,
St'
" alive at the end of the 19th century. The Yeats family moved to London
where W. B. Yeats went to school in Hammersmith, due to the
occuffences of the past three decades in Ireland there was a growing anti-
Irish feeling and Yeats records remembering the taunts and fights over
,-/,. being Anglo-Irish,more than any academic achievement.
In spite of the obvious prejudice and political turmoil in which
Yeats was brought up, Yeats kept politics out of his early poetry, indeed
he greatly disliked a poem he had written on the occasion of Parnell's
funeral in 1891 entitled, 'Mourn - and then onward'. Yeats' early poetry
was almost entirely directed towards Maud Gonne in th.e melancholic
 romantising of 'The Sorrow of Love' and 'The Pify of Love'. However
this is perhaps the terrible almost Shakespearean irony of Yeats' life, the
only true love of his life sprung from the only true hate in his life, the
revolutionary politics and fanatical opinions of the metamorphosing
Ireland. Yeats fell for Maud on their first meeting and her rejection of him
was what kept him going artistically; there is a famous quotation from
I
Maud who said in one of her rejections of Yeats' proposals of marriage
.J that "the world will thank me for not marting you.". It is possible to
consider Maud as an embodiment of the *evolutionary movement in
Ireland atthe timq unpredictable, fanatical, obsessive and the quality that
Yeats (although in a different context) identified in his poetry, her
mythological and unobtainable nature. - ""
Yeats avoidance of politics only lasted until the middle phase of his
poetry which saw a change of direction in his attitudes towards Maud as
well as the situation in Ireland in general. In the phase which started with
'Responsibilities' Yeats was writing about Maud Gonne in a more
negative light and "intellectual hatred" with poems such as 'No Second
Troy', his writings also became an outlet for his feelings about the
troubles in Ireland and the prospects of global conflict. In September
1913 Yeats sees Ireland as a place which he doesn't recognize, his
writings show an obvious higher level of maturity and he sees war as
some kind of madness. Yeats constantly makes references to 'O'Leary' a
friend of Yeats' who embodied Yeats' concepts of a romantic, idealistic
nationalism and Yeats' repetition that "Romantic Ireland's dead and
gone," emphasizes the fact that Yeats can see change and change for the
worse, the madness is starting again. Yeats publicly displays his dislike
for the emerging Ireland in his poetry, the opening lines of September
I9I3, "fumble tn a grea;sy till" is an attack on the capitalist nature
L j'ti"r'< i"''{it('" ( '* -r }
elnefging in lfeland. V// [,i*" ",''"'
t "Tfri, shift in focus "continued witih Yeats' account of the 1916
l, i r,v.v,..,.r ,**i- "
r '1 " ,!--'.,. :, Easter rising in and its effect on him in his poem 'Easter 1916'. Yeats
l;'- lot i" r*e -' ao,ain displa1//is strong perception seeing that even though the rebellion
o', t',
)::: 'bnly effected a .very small number of people, he realrzed, the likely
u.1,. ,rpolitical effects of the execution of the rebellions leaders. Yeats agaln
reiterates the fact that everything is "All changed, changed utterly:" Three
of the executed were poets known to Yeats, namely Patrick Pearse, who
"rode our winged horse", Thomas Mac Dough and Joseph Pldnkett. Yeats
r .- i
L-,,rl(' expresses the sadness he feels for what he sees as a needless w$it of life.
Yeats is however, very scathing of one of the dead men,John MacBrideu
$
referring to him as a "drunken vainglorious lout" who had done "bitter
wrong / to some near my heart". This statement is referring to the fact that
MacBride was maffied to Maud and Yeats seems to blame him for
f.i
Maud's actions, there is also an obvious touch of bitterness though since
 ]

Maud married MacBride and not him! Maud Gonne is again a prominent
figure in this poem referring what Yeats saw "her ignorant good wi11",
and Yeats makes a very profound statement in relation to Maud's, and the
rest of the 'fanatics' saying that "Too long a sacrifice I Can make a stone
of the heart". Maud also is commented on in the poems repetitive line "A
terrible beauty is born." again making reference to her fascinating yet
I, ultimately destructive nature and cause. The poem has been altered since
the original where lines 17 - 25 used to refer Constance Markiewicz who
was condemned to death but later reprieved, in the original she possessed
the "ignorant goodwill". The reasons for the change remains unclear, but
Yeats was known for constantly changing his poems and modifying them
once they were written.
The last stanza of the poem asks the important question;tf were
they bewildered by love (for patriotism and the cause) and concludes with
ii- t
the use of the most ba.44l patriotic symbol, the wearing of the green. Yeats
.L u', . ,1 u'( very cleverly sums up what he sees as the pointlessness of the waste of
life all in the name of 'patriotism' and whether it was worth dying to be
remembered as paffiots. "
Yeats became utterly convinced of the futility of war and his poetry
became more and more critical of Maud Gonne and her political
activities. In the poem, "On a Political Prisoner" Yeats makes reference to
the time Maud Gonne spent in jail for her 'patriotic' activities. Yeats is
very scathing of what he sees as an obsession with politics and that
,/'obsession has turned her into "a bitter (an) abstract thing." Yeats held the
belief that any political activity that is engaged in for too long and with
such intensity can make you bitter and twisted. Yeats also emphasizes
,"'what he sees as a vision of evil from political upheaval. This idea became
a focus for what is perhaps one of his finest poems, 'The Second
Coming". The poem was written in 1920, a time when fascism was just
raising its ugly head in central Europe. Yeats agatn displays his
remarkable perception of what might happen to our clrhzatron if it
descends into chaos once agatn. The poems power comes from Yeats'
inverted Christian imagery of the "rough beast" and how our Christian
civilization, "the falcon" is moving 3ryay from Christ and Christian
' values,ttthefalconer". t rtttLt^f ) zl"'
'
One of the most .*otiotrully touching poems of Yeats' later phase
is 'A Prayer for My Daughter'; in this poem Yeats addresses his daughter,
Anne Yeats, expressing his fears for her future in the world which is full
of chaos. The poem is a warning of what may happen if you follow the
same path as Maud and warns against developing an "intellectual hatred".
In conclusion.I would agree with the statement for I am convinced
that the circumstances in which Yeats was brought up in and the massive
social changes he experienced, not to mention his unrequited love for a
k

fanatical patriot drove him to his poetry. His writing, I believe, was his
only way of escaping the madness around him and indeed the reason why
such unique passionate poetry came out of such a troubled world.

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