Poems of W. B. YEATS

 Hello readers! Thanks to visit my blog. This blog is response to the thinking activity which is held by dilip sir. In this blog I write about four question but along with that i also discuss about poet. W. B. YEAT'S poem " The Second Coming" and "On Being Asked For A War Poem" are the part of our syllebus and it written so many years ago but it seems to be written in our time, it seems like written in current situaton. 

👉 About W. B. YEATS : 

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish literary establishment who helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.

A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount and was educated in Dublin and London and spent childhood holidays in County Sligo. He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, lasting roughly from his student days at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

From 1900 his poetry grew more physical, realistic and politicised. He moved away from the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with some elements including cyclical theories of life. He had become the chief playwright for the Irish Literary Theatre in 1894, and early on promoted younger poets such as Ezra Pound. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, his major works include 1928's The Tower and Words for Music Perhaps and Other Poems, published in 1932. 

⭐ Question- Answer: 

1. Pendamic reading of "The second coming".

Answer: "The Second Coming" is a poem written by Irish poet W. B. Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920, and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to allegorically describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe. It is considered a major work of modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. To read original poem The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War and the beginning of the Irish War of Independence in January 1919, that followed the Easter Rising in April 1916, at a time before the British Government decided to send in the Black and Tans to Ireland. Yeats used the phrase "the second birth" instead of "the Second Coming" in his first drafts.

The poem is also connected to the 1918–1919 flu pandemic: In the weeks preceding Yeats's writing of the poem, his pregnant wife Georgie Hyde-Lees caught the virus and was very close to death. The highest death rates of the pandemic were among pregnant women—in some areas, they had up to a 70 percent death rate. While his wife was convalescing, he wrote "The Second Coming". 

Apart from history in current time we are facing corona pendamic. The poem is like poem of corona pendamic. In second coming poem we found central theme that they are wishing for second coming of saviour or god. And if we see the poem as pendamic we can find one hindu mith, "जब जब धरती पे पाप बढ़ेगा, किसी न किसी रूपमें में आता रहूंगा" according this line we all are wishing God or Saviour when we are in trouble. In corona pendamic time the world suffer in various way. We are not getting even sufficient oxygen and medicine. So many people struggling still with economical issue. The corona pendamic time shows us the very bad time, all over the news of corona positive, and thousands number of deaths! The one corona virus became horrible monster which kills lakh number of people in just some time. 

During that time people pray to god to save them,  cause everything became out of our thinking. The situation goes above our hands. 

2. Reread the poem "War poem"  by replacing the word "war" with "Pendamic". Does it make any sense? 

Answer: "On being asked for a War Poem" is a poem by William Butler Yeats written on February 6, 1915 in response to a request by Henry James that Yeats compose a political poem about World War I. Yeats changed the poem's title from "To a friend who has asked me to sign his manifesto to the neutral nations" to "A Reason for Keeping Silent" before sending it in a letter to James, which Yeats wrote at Coole Park on August 20, 1915. The poem was prefaced with a note stating: "It is the only thing I have written of the war or will write, so I hope it may not seem unfitting." The poem was first published in Edith Wharton's The Book of the Homeless in 1916 as "A Reason for Keeping Silent". When it was later reprinted in The Wild Swans at Coole, the title was changed to "On being asked for a War Poem".  

If we reread the war poem with replacing word war with pendamic, ofcourse it make sense. We are facing any type of social, economical or health related issues we come to contact with so many things, problems, solutions and also we come to know reality of the world. The lines of the poem, 

  "I think it better that in times like these 

    A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth

   We have no gift to set a statesman right;" 

This lines shows the mirror of the society. That time may be people have faced same situation in society as today's man facing! In pendamic time we saw one incident of parul khkhar's poem! In literature we find lines that,"The duty of A real writer or poet is To draw world's real image by their words!" But it seems very good in books but not in real life. Whenever a poet or writer wrote about reality of politics, reality of social situations all the system try to suppress that writer or poet! So the line poet's mouth be silent, exacetly appropriate for pendamic situation. 

3. Critical analysis of any other poem written by W. B. Yeats.

Answer: Hear i choose the poem "Prayer for my daughter" to To read original poem click hear so now read the critical analysis of the poem. 

The poem ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’ opens with the image of the child sleeping in a cradle half hidden by its hood. The child sleeps innocently amidst the “howling storm” outside, but Yeats couldn’t settle down due to the storm inside. The storm howling symbolizes destruction mentioned by the poet in his ‘The Second Coming’. The wind bred in Atlantic has no obstacles except the estate of Lady Gregory, referring to the poet’s patroness, and a bare hill. The direct impact of the wind, meaning to the force of the outside world, especially on his daughter, worries the poet. Because of this great gloom he walked and prayed for his daughter to be protected from the physical storm outside and the political storm brewing across Ireland. 

In the second stanza of ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’, Yeats worries about the future are further explained. He hears the sea screaming upon the tower, under the bridge and elms above the flooded stream. The onomatopoeia word “Scream” and the “flooded stream” symbolize the poet’s overwhelming anxiety for his daughter. Also, it refers to the great flood in the Bible. Due to his haunting fear, he imagines the future coming out of sea and dances to the frenzied drum, referring to war and bloodshed. In the last line, the poet employs paradox “murderous innocence” to contrast the world and his daughter, which also recalls the images of “blood-dimmed tide” in ‘The Second Coming’.

In stanza four of ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’, Yeats substantiates his view on how excessive beauty has always been a source of trouble and destruction. He turns to Helen in Greek mythology, considered to be the most beautiful woman on earth, brought the doom upon her, and many others. The image of Helen evokes another figure Aphrodite, who rose out of the spray. The union of Aphrodite with Hephaestus bandy-legged Smith brings to mind the Maud Gonne-McBride episode. It makes the poet wonder if the beautiful women eat something stupid for salad, that they make a stupid decision which brings misery forever. “The rich Horn of Plenty” is suggestive of courtesy, aristocracy, and ceremony, that is lost by those women who make stupid decisions. 

In stanza five of ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’, the poet continues with what he wants his daughter to possess more than mere beauty. He wants his daughter to learn to be compassionate and kind. Many times, men who believed to love and loved by the beautiful women faced disappointment compared to those found love in the modest yet compassionate women. Moreover, he says modest and courteous people attract hearts than those with beauty, referring to his own marriage. Ultimately, he makes it clear that he wants his daughter to be an agreeable young woman than an arrogant beauty. In stanza six of ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’, Yeats continues to talk about his hopes and expectations for his daughter. As she grew up, he wants her to be happy and content. He wants her to become “a flourishing hidden tree” and her thoughts like a “linnet” referring to its innocence and cheerfulness. Like a linnet, he wants her to be satisfied in herself, and infect others with her happiness. Further, he wants her to live like a “laurel” rooted in a particular place. The poet reveals his wish on his daughter being rooted in the tradition.

 Yeats continues to talk about self-contentment women in stanza seven of ‘A prayer for my daughter’. He believes that kind, self-contained, traditionally rooted women are incorruptible. The poet considers hatred to be the cause of all evil and prays that her to be left off that evil. Further, he believes that a soul free from hatred will preserve its innocence and hatred. Just as the storm outside can’t tear leaves from sturdy trees, turmoil and war can’t break a strong woman. In stanza eight of ‘A prayer for my daughter’, the poet implores his daughter to shun passion and wild feelings that he considered as the weakness of beautiful women. She must be temperate because people who love deeply, could hate deeply too. Hate destroys people and makes them do cruel things, especially intellectual hatred which is worst of all kinds. The poet reflects upon his emotional state when Maud Gonne rejected him to marry John Macbride. He wants his daughter to experience neither the disappointment nor hatred. 

The ninth stanza continues to describe the impact of hatred and the benefit of staying away from hatred. Once hatred is driven out, the soul could recover its innocence. Then the soul would be free to explore and find that it is “self-delighting”, “Self-appeasing” and “self-affrighting”.  According to the poet, the ideal woman makes everyone happy and comfortable, despite all storms of misfortunes that come in her way. She is a stronghold for people around her and her will would be that of heavens, for she has a clear mind. In the last stanza of ‘A Prayer for my Daughter’, the poet expresses his final wish. He prays that his daughter to be married to a good husband who takes her to a home with aristocratic values and traditions. There, he believes that neither arrogance nor hatred of common folks could be found, but morality and purity. Further, the poet does not want her to live a decadent life. He concludes by stating that his daughter would be rooted in spiritual values like a ‘laurel tree’. 

4. Apply concepts of Indian poetics and re-read both the poems.

Answer:  In poem "on Being asked for war poem" we find dhavani theory from Indian poetics. Hear I find lakshana dhavani. Lakshana dhavani means Alamkara Dhavani : some figure of speech suggested. Hear we can said reading between lines or Do another reading with symbols.