William Butler Yeats

English Literature Since Romanticism

Spring 2024

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Yeats (Norton 209)
• Religious but unable to believe in Christian orthodoxy
• Says he “made a new religion, almost an infallible church of
poetic tradition”
• Grew up in Sligo, Ireland, where he learned peasants’
folklore e.g. “The Stolen Child”

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Yeats (Norton 209)
• Influenced by late-Romantic, Pre-Raphaelite ideas of
poetry—that a poet’s language should be evocative and
ethereal
• Influenced by Irish nationalism
• Founded the National Literary Society

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Yeats’ work
• Encapsulates a history of English poetry between 1890 and
1939 (18)
• Begins with the Romantic tradition (209) and the ideas of
the aesthetes (18)
• Middle period: turns to tougher and sparer ironic language
e.g. “Adam’s Curse” (18)

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Yeats’ work
• Symbolism (e.g. gyres), mythology e.g. “The Second
Coming” and “Leda and the Swan” (211)
• Realistic and suggestive imagery (18)
• Irish + English traditions + Asian elements (210)
• His poetry rejuvenates Irish culture (209)

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“The Stolen Child”
• Irish folklore (note 1); Yeats wrote Fairy and
Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) and
Fairy Tales of Ireland (1892)
• Names of places in Ireland (note 2)
• Refrain and variation in stanza 4
• The supernatural as alluring but also
threatening
Sligo

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 “The Lake of Innisfree”
• Inspiration (note 1 on Norton 215)
• Soothing sights of nature offer peace (line 5)
• A spiritual (“hear it in the deep heart’s core”)
journey of finding peace (line 5)

Source: The Victorian Web

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 “The Lake of Innisfree”
• Wants to escape to nature (lines 1 & 9), but is
still trapped in the city (line 11)
• Idealized Ireland vs. urban space (line 11)
• Associations of Western Ireland: beauty,
purity, beauty
• This poem is very popular; it strikes a chord
with Irish immigrants

Source: The Victorian Web

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“Who Goes with Fergus?”
• Note 1 on Norton 216
• Representative of Yeats’ symbolist phase
• Lines 9-11 suggest but doesn’t describe the
infinite kingdom of Fergus
• Mythical beauty of the world symbolizes the
mystery of poetry

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“Easter, 1916”
• The refrain, “A terrible beauty is born”
• Yeats’ historical mode; heroes’ names (75-76)
• Easter Rising of 1916 (note 1 on 221)
• Line numbers and the date (April 24, 1916):
stanzas of 16 lines alternate with stanzas of
24 lines. All stanzas are assembled from 4-line
units.
• Rhyming scheme: quatrain, ABAB, CDCD, …

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“Easter, 1916”
• “casual comedy” (line 37): unnecessary loss of
life
• Line 38: became a tragic victim
• Yeats and ordinary Irish people were shocked
by the tragic turn of the event
• Line 56: stone as symbol of permanence
amidst transient images (changing seasons,
moving clouds, sliding horse hooves)

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“Easter, 1916”
• Lines 57-59 and note 7 on 222 : ambivalent
attitudes toward Irish nationalism
• Line 60: let Heaven decide when the suffering
will end
• Line 61: job of those who live: to remember
their names
• Names in lines 75-76: “they” in line 1
• Line 78: Green: color of Ireland
• Yeats’ divided loyalties to Ireland and to
England (also see Norton 211)

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“The Second Coming”
• Forces of history as gyres (note 1 on Norton
227)
• Historical background (note 2 on 227)
• Line 14: Sphinx
• The title (note 3): ending of old age (line 19)
and coming of new age (line 21)
• Apocalyptic vision

https://irishdiscourse.wordpress.com/2020/03/
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 “Leda and the Swan”

Back Front

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“Leda and the Swan” by Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (ca. 1870) Source: The Met Museum
“Leda and the Swan”
• Note 1 on the mythology and significance of
Leda’s rape by a swan/Zeus
• Rhyming scheme: ABAB CDCD EFG EFG
• Leda gives birth to Helen and Clytemnestra,
in turn causing the Trojan War (lines 9-11)
• Lines 9-11: History begins with mythical
moment. Every beginning is violent
• Supernatural power/history/Zeus over human
body/Leda

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Midterm exam
April 16; open-book
Take-home project (25% of the exam) due
Sunday, April 21, at 11:59pm on Tronclass

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