W.B Yeats

By Lucy Byrne.

Biography

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 ? 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet born in Sandymount, Dublin. His father John Yeats, was a williamite soldier, painter

and a linen merchant. His mother Susan Mary Pollexfen, came from a rich merchant family from Co. Sligo. Yeats enrolled into Erasmus Smith High School,

Dublin in 1881. He wrote his first poem and essay " The Poetry of Samuel Ferguson" in 1885. In 1884, William Yeats joined the National College of Art

and Design, studying art til l 1886. It was at this time he started writing poems on different themes and plays. Yeats and Lady Gregory founded the Irish Theatre, which later became the Abbey Theatre, and served as it's chief

playwright.

5 | Outdoor M agazine Oct 20 14

1865 - 1939

After 1910, Yeats' work changed rapidly towards a highly poetical, cryptic style. He began to write plays for small audiences.

Experimenting with masks, dance and music. Yeats was influenced by Noh plays (Dramas based on Japanese Traditions). Although a patriot,

Yeats bemoaned the hatred and the narrow-mindedness of the Nationalist movement. This was reflected in his poetry as it is full of

protests against it. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922.

His poetry, especially The Wild Swans at Coole(1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the most influential twentieth-century poets. In December 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation". He died at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, France, on 28 January 1939. He was buried after a private funeral in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. In September 1948, Yeats' body was moved and buried in Drumcliff, Sligo.

The History of Yeats' Work

?The Lake Isle of Innisfree? The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics,

1892.

?When You Are Old? The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends

and Lyrics, 1892.

?The Song of Wandering Aengus?

The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899.

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven? The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899 ?No Second Troy?

The Green Helmet and Other Poems,

1912

A Timeline of Yeats' most famous poems:

?Leda and the Swan? The Tower, 1928

?Easter, 1916? Michael

Robartes and the Dancer,

1921The Second Coming?

Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1921

?An Irish Airman Foresees His Death? The Wild Swans at

Coole, 1919

?The Wild Swans at Coole? 1919

?The Player Queen?

Responsibilities and Other Poems, 1916

from 1892 to 1928.

The Lake Isle Of Inisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight?s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet?s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart?s core.

CommentaryThe Lake Isle of Innisfree,? published in Yeats? second book of poems (The Rose, 1983) is one of his first great abiding poems. The soothing, constant stansas recreate the flowing waves of the tide.

He establishes a scene of an idyllic world for the reader. For a short moment in time the reader is not only

captivated, but transported. Suddenly, in the penultimate line, the reader is jolted back to reality. The final line, ?I hear it in the deep heart?s core? is a crucial

statement for the poem and also for Yeats. It is monosyllabic, emphasising Yeats' message, that it is

essential in life to sometimes go with your heart rather than what your head is telling you.

Theme & Style?The Lake Isle of Innisfree? is one of the most popular poems by Yeats. It takes the reader to a tiny island in the middle of a lake, away from the comotion of everyday life. There to live independently, alone. The theme of this poem is isolation. Such a retreat is one that everyone dreams of from time to time. The reader can imagine Yeats dreaming, like us, on the busy London streets, wondering will he ever truely experience peaceful isolation. Yeats seems to desperately need solitude. He's sick of the congested city, and the only companionship that interests him is that of the bees, the beans, and the birds.

The poem is written in three stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. The rhyming scheme in this poem is ABAB. This rhyming scheme creates a sense of harmony. It reflects the peace, serenity that the poet sees in the Lake Isle of Innisfree.

By Lucy Byrne.