William Yeats Essay, Research Paper

On June 13 1865 William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin Ireland. From the start Yeats had artistic influences, due to the fact that his male parent Jack Butler Yeats was a celebrated Irish painter. He had no formal instruction until he was eleven, at that clip he started at the Godolphin Grammar School in Hammer*censored*h England and subsequently he enrolled in Erasmus Smith High School in Dublin. Throughout his schooling he was considered dissatisfactory pupil, his surveies were inconsistent, he was prone to twenty-four hours dreaming, and hapless at athleticss. In 1884 Yeats found his manner to the Metropolitan School for the Humanistic disciplines, here he met a poet by the name of George Russell. Yeats and Russell sheared the same dreams, visions, and the enthusiasm for them. Russell and Yeats shortly founded the Dublin Hermetic Society for the intent of carry oning charming experiments. They promoted their thought that whatever great poets had affirmed in at that place finest minutes was the nearest we could come to an important faith and that their mythology and their liquors of air current and H2O were but actual truth. This sparked Yeats s involvement in the survey of the supernatural. After his experience in the hermetic society he joined the Rosicrucians, Madam H.P. Blavavtsky s Theosophical Society, and MacGregors Mather s Order of the Dawn. Yeats consulted mediums often and engaged in the rite of raising the Irish Gods. The supernatural research Yeats made was evident in his poesy. The supernatural was a beginning of images to utilize in his verse form, and evedence of this is in all of his plants. In1885 Yeats met John O Leary an Irish Patriot and Fenian leader. O Leary played a big function on acquiring Yeats s his work foremost published in The Dublin University Review and directing Yeats s attending to native Irish beginnings for inspiration. The influence of O Leary caused Yeats to take up the Irish author s cause. England was seeking to destruct all Irish literature in an effort to anglicise Ireland through a prohibition on the Gaelic linguistic communication. O Leary s patriotism and resistance to violence impressed many people including Yeats. These positions helped determine political positions that Yeats would keep for the remainder of his life. In 1889Yeats met Maude Gonne, a adult female he loved unrequitedly for the remainder of his life. Yeats asked Gonne to get married him many times but she ever turned him down. Gonne was an Irish nationalist and an inspiration to Yeats. Yeats often accompanied here to political mass meetings even though he normally disagreed with her radical tactics. Their relationship went through a batch including Gonne s ephemeral marrige to John McBride. Most of Yeats s poesy is addressed to her. Yeats associated her with Helen of Troy, whose unpredictability led to the devastation of a civilisation. In 1986 Yeats became friends with Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, a nationalist dramatist. Together Yeats and Lady Gregory helped to establish the Abbey Theater. As the manager and playwright Yeats helped to turn it into a taking theatrical company of the universe and a centre of the Irish Renaissance. Near the Turn of the century Yeats fought to abandon his old manner of authorship, at this clip his composing became less mystical and symbolic and it became clearer. Yeats finally got married in 1917, at the age of 52. His married woman was Georgi

e Hyde-Lees, while on their honeymoon she discovered that she had mediumistic abilities. Through automatic writing she could communicate with a visionary realm. In Yeats s later years he became more involved in politics. From 1922 1928 he was a senator for the Irish Free State. In 1923 Yeats received the Nobel Prize for literature, and died on January 18 1939 in Roquebrune France. Yeats was buried in Sligo Ireland. A Drunken Mans Praise of Sobriety Come swish around my pretty punk And keep me dancing still That I may stay a sober man Although I drank my fill. Sobriety is a jewel That I do much adore, And therefore keep dancing Though drunkards lie and snore. O mind your feet, O mind your feet Keep dancing like a wave, And under every dancer A dead man in his grave. No ups no downs, my Pretty, A mermaid not a punk; A drunkard is a dead man And all dead men are drunk. This is a lyrical poem, which Yeats wrote in 1938. The title sounds like it s a poem about a recovering alcoholic, but it seems that the person that Yeats is talking about is drunk. It also appears that he is such an alcoholic that he is drinking to feel normal. The line Sobriety is a jewel leads me to believe that sobriety is a goal. The use of the word jewel leads me to believe that it is a goal that is hard to achieve. The following line That I do much adore; makes me believe that he wants to achieve his goal very badly. The repetitive talk of keeping him dancing could have two meanings. The first one is he is talking to himself or another person to keep him away from the bar and getting a drink. The other meaning could be that he is talking to a drink and keeps just to continue dancing and avoid passing out. As a whole the poem is a bout a man drunk off his ass realizing that he has a problem. Saying that a drunk is dead makes me think that he actually realizes how bad alcohol is, but that could just be the modern day values of society that I know. The Old Men admiring Themselves in the Water I herd the old, old men say. Everything alters, And one by one we drop away. They had hands like claws, and knees Were twisted like old thorn-trees By the waters. I herd the old, old men say, All that s beautiful drifts away Like the waters. This poem was written some time between 1904 and 1910, at this time Yeats would have been between 39 and 45 years old. When Yeats wrote this he probably started to see changes in himself, and when he saw old men he realized how close he was to becoming one of them himself. Because of the subject, I find it strange that e used a lyrical style of writing. To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no Come play with me; Why should you run Through the shaking tree As though I d a gun To strike you dead? When all I would do Is scratch your head And let you go. Yeats wrote this poem between 1919 and 1928. I think that this poem has more meaning than just wanting to play with a squirrel. At the time it was written there was some major industrialization going on, so that leads me to believe that the squirrel represents all of nature, and he is trying to enjoy nature. The fact that the squirrel runs away shows that nature knows of mans destructiveness and it doesn t trust man. What I think Yeats is trying to say is that he really doesn t agree with industrialization, but again he uses a lyrical style.