write an essay on yeats poetic style

W.B. Yeats: Writing Style & Poetry

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet, playwright, and politician – one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. His works include a wide range of poems, plays, and essays. Some of his most famous works are the poems “The Second Coming,” “Sailing to Byzantium,” and “Easter 1916,” as well as the plays “The Countess Cathleen” and “The Land of Heart’s Desire.”

The poetry of W.B. Yeats is known for its depth and complexity and is characterized by many distinct features and themes. Some of the key characteristics of W.B. Yeats’s writing style and poetry are discussed in this essay.

Introduction

W.b. yeats’s writing style.

Each poem is very individual and unique. There are many types of rhythms, tones, language uses, and the general structure. Everyone reflects a particular feeling felt or thought of by the poet. It is a reflection of the personal philosophy, understanding of life, and others. This essay describes the writing style of William Butler Yeats. His poetic style is believed to be one of the most memorable ones that can be analyzed.

William Yeats is one of the key figures of the 20th-century literature. Born in the middle of the 19th century, he is still considered to be a modern and up-to-date poet. The biography of William B.Yeats is quite interesting. Having renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, in his later years Yeats turned out to become a politician. He served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. Yates’ works gained recognition during his lifetime. In 1983, he got a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Yeats’ famous poems feature a unique and very distinct poetic style. W. B. Yeats was a great poet who deserves a place among other famous artists. The specific characteristics of his type of poetry originality come from the spontaneous nature of the poem, and the use of alteration and substitution.

In the first one, spontaneity adds a surprise to the verse and leaves the reader wondering what will come next. As it is always a process of discovery, the poem becomes even more intriguing and unexpected. In the second method of writing, using alteration and substitution gives the ability to percept various meanings and concepts (Unterecker, 1996).

The writing style in Yeats’ poems was much different in the beginning, comparing to the later one. It is nostalgic, having a much laid back structure and appearance. It related more to the older language and the times when poems had a much different development level. After some time, Yeats’ style of writing changed and became more modernized. It gained many directions and became very precise and specific.

Whereas previously, his poetry was more “poetic,” it changed into being “to the point,” accurate and intense. Yeats’ poetic style provided very rhythmic and structured order and sounding. It was very vigorous and direct, which left no room for hesitation and interpretation.

The use of language in Yeats’ poems is very confident and passionate at the same time. The words are very definitive and have the power to draw attention and force understanding. The use of affectionate words adds color and energy to the poems. The functionality of language and especially the subject matter became predominant throughout.

It was a form of philosophy that aimed to educate the deeper parts of the human psyche. Even when the subject was related to passion, celebration, nostalgia, or calmness, it was still straightforward. As such, a concrete organization has become instrumental when using metaphors. Exaggeration and hyperboles started to appear more often, defining the poetic style as overdramatic and distrustful (Chaudhry, 2001).

Yeats’ style is very contrasting to that of Shakespeare’s. Even though there are a lot of unexpected turns, the language is much more direct. Shakespeare often uses an indirect approach, and then, the meaning appears to come together from several pieces. Yeats’ style of poetry is crisper, so the meaning is received quickly and without hesitation.

As such, a lot of information can be grasped by the reader, and the picture will be more logical and organized. Some poems have very shortened verses, and this gives a rapid rhythm to a poem. It keeps a person at the moment, inspiring to action and a clear way of thinking. One can see that from the quote below:

That fool, all foul and pitifully looking

Dost thou not learn how to correctly dance?

If ye has chosen entertainer’s fate

That taken kindness from your unresolved inside?

Who’s guilty time will show

As every day is filled with a reminder

To understand what’s meant by the presented man

A hundred years won’t clear the fact of quarrel.

This essay analyzed the writing style of William Butler Yeats. He is one of the key figures of the 20th-century literature. The specific characteristics of Yeats’ style of poetry come from the spontaneous nature of the poem, and the use of alteration.

Chaudhry, Y. (2001). Yeats, the Irish Literary Revival and the Politics of Print . Dublin, Ireland: Cork University Press.

Unterecker, J. (1996). A Reader’s Guide to William Butler Yeats. New York, NY: Syracuse University Press.

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W.B. Yeats: Writing Style & Poetry

1. introduction.

Background: In the early 20th century, William Butler Yeats brought new life to the Irish nationalistic movement through his poetry and plays, some of the greatest in Irish literary history. While Yeats led a very eventful life, his seemingly infinite accomplishments are perhaps more amazing than the man himself. After all is said and done, Yeats is best remembered for his poetry - bear in mind that he dabbled in a little bit of everything. The purpose of this essay is to explore the writing techniques Yeats pioneered and the significance they have played on his poetry and the legacy he left behind. Writing Style: Yeats' early style was romantic and dreamy; it was neither realistic nor naturalistic, but idealistic. Around 1910, he began to write more realistic dramas and stage a number of experimental theatre pieces. In the mid-90s, Yeats became involved with the Golden Dawn, a magical order which dealt with the occult, spiritualism, alchemy, astrology, Qabalah, and Hermeticism. It was at this time that Yeats' poetry started to reflect an internal mythology; this brought about a vastly more complex and abstract writing style. This new style would usually encompass the esoteric meanings of what he had learned and help him come to grips with the various systems of initiation and its potential implementation on life. It was at this point that Yeats believed he was in direct contact with the otherworld. Later in his life, his writing style changed once again. With the onset of the Irish civil war, Yeats was to write intense and moving poetry. As an old man, he continued to write both idealistic and politically minded poetry. Yeats was always striving for a style; he tried many literary fashions on for size, and as his life and thought changed, so did his poetry. His works were an expression of his inner self, and he would write and rewrite the same works many times over as his understanding of what he needed to express changed. Poetry: Undeniably, writing had an immense effect on Yeats' poetry, as it was quite an experimental model for changing a craft. This has not always been viewed as a positive thing; T.S. Eliot thought that the division in Yeats' later work had created a chasm that poetry would never be able to overcome again, and yet Gordon says that Yeats proved safe by example that a poet could risk anything. What is quite obvious is that no other poet has ever worked so diligently at crafting the perfect piece. He was seen as the slow change tormented the shell to a self-image of perfection.

1.1. Background of W.B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born in County Dublin, a highly artistic area on the east coast of Ireland, in 1865. His family, whose ancestors include Englishman William Butler, who is responsible for handing the name down, settled in the country later in the 1600s. We can see in many of Yeats's poems that the family was split and often in turmoil. In "The Curse of Cromwell" he described the period of turmoil and complexity that existed in Ireland at the time, expressing his family's despair with "Great granddaughter of Oedipus, I weep for what I never knew". This poem is a clear depiction of his family's sense of rootlessness. A stereotype of his family's Anglo-Irish nature can be seen in the poem, "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death" in the first verse, but it was quite unclear which culture Yeats identified himself with. All his life, Yeats viewed his identity as a poet and Irishman inseparable, and his audience accepted this when he became an important public figure. Yeats spent most of his time in Sligo, where he found a native tradition to be interested in, and these traditions came together in his mind when the family moved to London when he was only two. Through his father's painting broadening his outlook on life and some time in London, Yeats grew up knowing some English. He went back to London for a time while he was studying at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. Later, he would meet and marry one of Ireland's most famous nationalist revolutionaries, Maud Gonne, who served as an unrequited love for many famous Irish poets and playwrights. This would be the nearest Yeats would come to leading an ordinary life. He mixed with the city's literati and became a part of the cultural revival, which was to be an important time in the history of Ireland and has yet to be repeated. Yeats hung on the border between the upper and lower classes of the time, showing a disregard for convention in his life and jumping in and out of treating people like V.S. Pritchett and Russell and Gonne. Lady Gregory described him as a person who never refused an odd invite in his life. Up until the time that Gonne rejected Yeats' proposal for the last time, he was still involved in English affairs and he was in London when war broke out. He returned to Ireland in 1917 where he was appointed senator. He stayed involved in Irish affairs up until the very end of his life.

1.2. Significance of Yeats' Writing Style

Yeats' writing style is unique and significant. He changed the history of writing in his era. His writing style reflects his philosophy, and that is why he never deviated from his path. Whether young or old, his style remained the same. He used to write on Irish politics in a symbolic way. Symbols of his poetry haunt the readers with their ambiguity, but his symbols are invariably drawn from the rich mythological lore. He has only used symbols to suggest a theme or a certain philosophy, rather than illustrate in the common symbolist practice. He follows Plato's dictum that "a good poem is a piece of moral philosophy expressed in the style of meter." All great poets have an individual style. But many poets have style at the cost of thought. Hyde asserts that "Yeats' poetry is great in style, and small in content." This is not true. He wrote, it is true, that to poetry solely was Yeats ever faithful. Yeats' ancestors believed that "Oratore tenetur ad respondendum, Poeta ad non respondendum." This zealous belief in the immunity of the poet from responsibility for public views was still held by the more old-fashioned of the Yeatses. W. B. Yeats was greatly influenced by the Revival of Irish Folklore and the Celtic Literary Revival (one of his own creations). This is how he found a new way to mirror the idea of life and life itself. He discovered in Irish folklore and the classical belief and legends of other nations, that which he called "a system of symbols" of which the contemporary world and his own experience of the world could be regarded as a different expression. He believed that it is a poet's function to create a noble unifying image to express to a given community at a given time, the unformulated and ignored desires of that community. He held that the contemplative life had little value, that it was an age of action that he was called to sing, not indeed a time of political excitement or a time which can be defined by mere political events, but a time in which thoughts and desires must become effective in the quiet battle with adverse destiny. So he pledged himself to act through his poetry for the Ireland of his time and he said, "Once out of nature I shall never take my bodily form from any natural thing, but such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make of tempering to eternity."

1.3. Overview of Yeats' Poetry

Yeats' poetry has become a fixation for English-speaking people. From that people, too, the seriousness of his themes and the grandeur of his utterance have won an international audience. There are many reasons for this esteem, but the most general is that Yeats's aims as a writer were directed towards a union of opposites. Although a highly conscious artist, he was the proponent of a revival of the cultural and spiritual life of Ireland. And though no one was more scrupulous in his craftsmanship, it was always an increased intensity of life which he sought to express. The full power of his work was devoted to convincing his countrymen of a need for a spiritual revolution of the sort he posited in "The great hour of din." An entry from his journal in the mid-1890s is important in helping one to understand this last point. He wrote, "I will write out the story of myself - out of the passions that have made me and into passions that will, I pray, unmake me and leave me nothing." His earliest publications—passionate and nationalistic lyrics in the style of William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley—are a young man's work, and he soon turned to ballads of a more artificial and less spontaneous quality. From The Wanderings of Oisin—on which he worked from 1889 to 1891 but did not publish until 1895—until his last work, Yeats always considered himself a folklorist. At first, he attempted to transfer the peasant speech and modes of life he uncovered in his real and imaginary travels through Ireland into literary form. Later, he decided that this attempt created a disjunction of his inner and outer life, and that this disjunction was a tragic sign of his times. He resolved that he could not be a "popular" writer, and that he must ally himself with an aristocracy of thought and feeling. Oisin and Irish mythology, therefore, became for him a symbol of man's experience of a true life which is unattainable within history.

2. Influences on Yeats' Writing Style

Yeats' writing style was constantly changing, in some ways it was a reflection of his life. When it was at its best, it was an act of both reflecting upon and a means of coming to terms with the changes that marked his country's political, cultural, and aesthetic landscape. It shifted from the rich, metaphoric language of his 1890s poetry to the sparer language of his 20th-century work. His major influences were the hereditary qualities of his poetry, oral and written, from the ballads of the past. In general, Yeats' work is a product of Irish history. He was known to have immersed himself in the study of history and the then-contemporary Irish politics, but he also had a good understanding of earlier times and thus sought out the root of native traditions. This was the start of his need to create a myth of Irishness, to establish the ideals, the character, and the qualities of the Irish people in a way it had not been done before. He had felt that the Irish people had been historically defined by others and so had begun a movement of looking at themselves and defining who and what they were. In turn, he sought out Irish culture and history, the stories, the word of mouth, the folk tradition, aiming to find a way forward by looking back. This was expressed through his love of the rural and the rustic and his distaste for urban modernity, which made itself known in many of his works. His dedication to the Irish cause was finally reflected in his active participation in the government of the Irish Free State and his winning of the Nobel Prize, and so it may be said that his entire writing life had become an act of re-creation of the Irish tradition.

2.1. Irish Mythology and Folklore

One of the strongest influences on Yeats is that of Irish mythology and folklore. He was steeped in the oral tradition and he also read extensively on the subject. There were few aspects of Irish culture that had as profound effect on Yeats as its mythology and folklore. His interest was intense and enduring; it is well documented that he read the entire medieval Irish mythic cycle, which had to be better than any text found today due to its decay throughout history and mishandling by English scholars. This understanding of Irish myth was to color his entire career. In his early years it provided an emotional frame of reference, helping him to identify symbolically with the rejuvenation of the Irish nation. Later, it was to provide inspiration for some of his best poetry and plays, which have themselves left a lasting mark on the Irish mythic tradition. The single most important source guiding Yeats's genius into Irish folklore was Lady Gregory. Committed to the cause of an Anglo-Irish literary revival, Lady Gregory was anxious to provide the Irish literary tradition with an alternative to its imitation of Continental and English models. As an element of the nationalistic revival, she believed that the recovery, research, and representation of Irish folk traditions would allow literature to capture the spirit of the Irish people. Lady Gregory soon realized the untapped potential of Ireland's oral tradition and, having read some of the tales of the folklorist Peig Buckley, sought to learn more from native storytellers. In 1897, she encountered a group of traveling musicians and storytellers and, having invited them to her estate at Coole, spent several months recording their tales. Lady Gregory sought Yeats's interest and involvement in the preservation and publication of these tales and, their successful collaboration led in 1904 to the foundation of the Irish National Theatre Society with the goal of making a vital, living theatre for Ireland. During this time Yeats was also director of the Abbey theatre and many of its productions were based on or greatly influenced by Irish folklore. His work in the folklore tradition is significant to the point that a volume of his original works can be traced to specific Irish folktales.

2.2. Symbolism and Occultism

In 1888, Yeats had a very profound mystical experience. This experience occurred during a séance and through his unwilling participation, thus began an obsession with the supernatural and occult. Yeats spent much time reading, writing, and building knowledge about an assortment of occult sciences such as astrology, alchemy, elementals, and the Kabbalah. This imagery of the occult and supernatural world is especially present in his writing. In much of his poetry and plays, there is an abundance of supernatural beings such as magicians, fairies, and so forth. All of which serve as symbols or metaphor. For example, his play "The Countess Cathleen" tells the story of a rich and selfless woman who sells her soul to the devil in order to save the starving peasants of Ireland. Here, the characters of the Devil and the Shrouded one are clearly meant to be symbolic, as is the pact itself. The devil represented wealth and guidance which Ireland sorely needed above all else, and the pact was a statement about the state of the country at the time. This play was written after Yeats joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was a secret society that practiced ritual magic and consisted of several other notable and well-respected individuals of the time. This Order conveyed the notion of an ideal life or illumined life, something to be strived for, to rescue mankind from the state that it was in. This too would later become a theme in Yeats' writing. Yeats remained with the Golden Dawn up until the time when the factions began to split and the leaders were involved in bitter conflicts.

2.3. Romanticism and Celtic Revival

The latter part of the nineteenth century in Ireland was a time of rapid social, economic, and cultural change. The Great Famine and the effects of the Plantations had resulted in mass evictions and the virtual disappearance of the Gaelic way of life. The country that emerged from these events was, in many ways, unrecognizable to the peasant and landholding classes who had borne the brunt of the changes. However, these changes were neither comprehensive nor complete, and the late 1800s also saw the beginnings of a resurgence in interest in Ireland's past and a new desire to create a cultural identity for the Irish people. This desire found a voice in the late 1800s, often in the form of art and literature. Many Irish intellectuals felt themselves part of a wider European movement in which the spread of industrialization brought with it a rejection of the present in favor of a romanticized view of the past. This was often accompanied by a desire for cultural or political autonomy. In this respect, Ireland was no exception, and the last decades of the nineteenth century saw the founding of various organizations dedicated to the study of Irish culture and history, such as the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language. Cultural identity was not the only issue facing Ireland in this era. Nationalists and Home Rulers hoped to win increased freedom for Ireland, possibly even autonomy from Great Britain. This too found expression in art and literature, in which the Irish people were often portrayed struggling against the oppressive forces of the English. All these activities were buoyed by the success of other small nations in achieving independence throughout Europe.

2.4. Modernism and Literary Movements

With no previous commitment to nationalist poetry, Yeats discovered a vehicle for political and cultural ideas in the work of a poet who had used Irish peasant speech and themes from Irish mythology—Douglas Hyde, whose Love Songs of Connacht (1893) was a milestone in the translation of Irish myths and legends. Shortly after the death of O'Leary in 1907, Yeats wrote: "The powerful and gentle genius of Ceannt, of Slieve Echtge, and a hundred other places poured out that last light and fiery form of his at Bedford's last Monday. Now is the time to go rudely and learn the language and make a new literature." It is not hard to distinguish the note in this still somewhat naively phrased resolve. Without the bitterness, to write a more active and effective version of what O'Leary had attempted in A Handbook of Irish Mythology (1880) and The Coming of Lugh (1894)—the creation of a public opinion that would repudiate the "twilight with ventilator" and reflect the national heroism in its imagined past. Like AE and Russell, the other two members of what came to be known as the Irish Literary Revival, Yeats was henceforward a literary exponent of the revolutionary spirit in Ireland. The source was John O'Leary, a former Fenian whose writings and speeches at the end of the 19th century had made the national struggle heroic in tone and mythologically conscious. Through O'Leary, Yeats received a direct connection with the IRB and the old Fenian society which was the semi-secret and militant cultural organization that underlay the parliamentary and constitutional activity of the revised Home Rule movement, whose leader was John Redmond. O'Leary had been an officer in the Fenians; in his "Life of Redmond" (Gilbert, 1908) Yeats records the shadowy memory of a visit made to Bedford by a Fenian friend of Redmond to consult with O'Leary about the possibility of a rising in Ireland.

3. Characteristics of Yeats' Writing Style

Yeats's writing style was heavily influenced by the cultural and societal trends of his time. His style was based largely in fantasy, symbolism, and rural subjects that were prevalent at the turn of the century, during which time he was writing. English Decadence, Celtic revival, fin de siècle, nineties, and the Irish Literary revival were all occurring around Yeats and each played a role in shaping his literary voice. These general themes in the literature of Yeats's time are more or less a revolt against the realistic literature that was prevalent in the early 19th century due to industrialization and the rise of the middle class. There was a call to return to a more primitive and pure form of literature and a focus on a revival of national identity. Symbolism and Imagery 3.2. Mythical and Mystical Elements 3.3. Political and Social Commentary 3.4. Musicality and Rhythm

3.1. Symbolism and Imagery

Yeats' extensive use of symbolism is unique in its use of symbols as personal and private revelations of experience, as opposed to associative ideas with the allegorical world at large. In his poetry, Yeats added an 'astral' element; a personal mythology that was deeply linked with symbolist techniques. Yeats' system of symbolism is also present in his later works, where he placed the system outlined in A Vision to the task of his poetry in both explicit and indirect ways. His bold use of symbols is in part what makes Yeats' poetry instantly appealing to some, and impenetrable to others. Yeats was the dominant figure in modern literature of the English language and his poetry, with its wild lyrical beauty and a spiritual aspiration, made a lasting impact on the imaginations of the whole English-speaking world. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 and followed by an Irish knighthood in 1925; yet it is too limiting to think of Yeats as a purely public figure. Yeats poetry is a compelling statement of the poet's own struggle to come to terms with the conflicting forces of his own personality, his life and his times. At every stage of his development Yeats endeavors to unite his "dissociated sensibility," that is, to make articulate the various components of his being. In doing so, Yeats attempted to define what it means to be an artist in a modern world, considering the artist's ever-conflicting mental and emotional faculties.

3.2. Mythical and Mystical Elements

Yeats' interest in Irish mythology and folklore never waned throughout his long life and permeated his work. In his early years, this interest took the form of the Pre-Raphaelites and their use of myth to escape what they saw as the triumph of materialism and the decline of modern civilization. During his middle years, Yeats was to become interested in more particularly Irish subjects and in an effort to make this myth current, he used it as an allegorical parallel to contemporary events. This is particularly evident in the poem 'Easter 1916', where the tragic tale of the Irish uprising is elevated by its inclusion in a mythic cycle to a status beyond a simple lament for the dead. Some would see this as a diversion for Yeats, for here myth is being used as propaganda to further the political ideology of a nation and not for an ideal that is eternal and universal. Yeats' later work sees a return to more universal themes where the principal objective was to express a personal philosophy. This was often based around the tension in Yeats' mind between the life of the world and the cloister, action and contemplation, a life of responsibility or a life of freedom. This is typified in the 'Crazy Jane' series where an old woman attempts to seduce Jane away from 'running among the steeples' so that she may learn to attain eternal peace through a life of sensuality. Yeats would write a play involving these themes at the height of his involvement with the Golden Dawn, 'The Land of Heart's Desire', in order to elevate the drama by esoteric means and bring luck to the theatre. This period of his work also sees some of the most visceral and vital use of myth, particularly in the short stories where the chaos of the world is given form in the elemental struggles of supernatural beings.

3.3. Political and Social Commentary

Irony pervades The Trembling of the Veil. I would prefer not to be writing of this subject, he says while discussing an occult belief mentioned in passing. By the time Yeats was exulting in his achievement of drawing near to a more noble and desirable mode of thought, he likely considered a condemnation of the mindset he had just left behind to be a rather futile exercise. Despite what he declares in the oft-quoted passage "To make a beautiful world, the poet must remain eternally detached," he does not seem to share Nietzsche's disdain for political involvement. His reason for such a post is instead a very good one, he says of his decision to accept a seat in the Irish Senate, meaning looking him in the eye. So doing, he seeks to counteract a society moving ever closer to an unavoidable modernized indignity which he abhors by example and the residual influence of his outmoded aristocratic ethos. As Cormac O Grada points out, Yeats did not lack constructive ideas about practical politics. He wrote essays promoting an ordered and self-sufficient rural lifestyle as a model for a revived Irish national identity. The particulars of Yeats' political persuasion during the revolutionary period are a matter of some contention. Richard Ellmann's assertion that a genuine attachment to some kind of aristocratic state led him to ally himself with the extreme right against the democratic forces of Pearse and Connolly has been convincingly refuted by R.F. Foster, who contends that Yeats never actively sought to promote a fascist or authoritarian regime and still identified more with the revolutionary tradition than the status quo. Even if the particulars of his actual allegiances do not fit the image he would have liked to project, the Aristotelian ethos embodied in the guiding Caesar in a draft from Per Amica Silentia Lunae would be a most apt description of Yeats' ideal government.

3.4. Musicality and Rhythm

Yeats believed that a poet's words should be dictated by the sounds he/she is trying to express. He was very focused on making sure that the sound manipulated the tempo, which in turn would determine the rhythm in each line. William Butler Yeats was a master of the ottava rima, a difficult form for he had his own take on it by adding a pause after the fourth line. In "The Folly of Being Comforted," the ottava rima stanza is written in his own style. Huffam writes, "The effect is a curious repetition of an old Italian model. It produces a ring of slant-rhyme and amplifies a sorrowful fall from high emotion." Yeats also used a variety of other stanza forms and meters, and it is often said that he preferred to use unconstrained writing in this free from being able to best express himself. However, he never wasted effort and put a tremendous amount of thought into verse. He discarded works that he thought were a failure, or would keep them and recycle good lines from them. He has amassed a large amount of perfectly crafted lines, and these memorable quotes that are repeated often throughout many of his poems are what allow it to flow off the tongue.

4. Analysis of Yeats' Poetry

Biography gives a method for understanding Yeats' verse. The different turns of events, clashes, and contradictions of Yeats' life enormously affected his work, what he was composing would be slanted by his temperament around then. Yeats frequently utilized the strategy of alluding to current occasions that were going on around then in his nation. The ballad September 1913 is a fine illustration of this. At the hour of composing this ballad, there was an obvious temper in Ireland, strikes were regular and strains between various groups were high. This sonnet fixes these occasions by taking a gander at men who Yeats beckoned the Irish pioneers to be, these men he said were not found anyplace and were just a fantasy. Yeats loathed the course that Ireland was taking and this ballad is a renouncement of those occasions. An individual function in Yeats' life which he fixed in his verse was his marriage to Maud Gonne, this adoration inconceivable and troubled has become one his most utilized themes. One more noteworthy impact on Yeats' work was the supernatural. His profound interest and inclusion in spiritualism and the mysterious are completely archived in his verse. This can be seen in The Song of Wandering Aengus and The Phases of the Moon. In The Second Coming there is a scraping of Christian and mysterious accounts to show an appalling pinnacle in the human cycle at the possible appearance of the Anti-Christ in Yeats' message.

4.1. Themes and Motifs in Selected Poems

Before the examination of the poetry of Yeats, I feel that a bit of explanation is required about the man and his life. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin. His father was a lawyer and a well-known portrait painter. It was a childhood curiosity towards the supernatural and occult that stayed with him throughout his life and filled much of his poetry. In 1887, his family moved to London but he frequently visited Ireland. This was probably the root of his love for his homeland and his frequent conflicted feelings about being part of the Anglo-Irish society. In 1889, he and his family moved back to Dublin. He was heavily involved in the Irish cultural movement which aimed to revive the spirit of Ireland. This later led to the Irish National Literary Society. He was also involved in the political side of things, being indirectly involved with and later a senator of the Irish Free State. These experiences with Irish culture and his own hang-ups about his Anglo-Irish nature were rulers for the themes of his poetry. The images of Yeats stand out in particular and many of them form core ideas that appear again and again in his poetry. "Sailing to Byzantium" presents an older man who, in a state of despair over his worsening physical condition, will seek a way to become one with the art of its day and escape the pain of a body racked with illness and decay. "Slouching towards Bethlehem" tells of the return to that a new messiah will come the world at. The soul and the destination are left unknown but the powerful emotion behind the words seems to grip the reader. W.B Yeats' fascination with Irish folk-tales and mythology lead him to a view of the continual flux and rhythm of history in dynastic cycles moving in a circular pattern. This is portrayed in the poem "The Curse of Cromwell" as a state of the nation that has wronged. A time that he believed was the then present state of Irish Free State and the way that he viewed the England's treatment of Ireland.

4.2. Structure and Form in Yeats' Poetry

Structure is an exceptionally significant part in W.B. Yeats' composition. It is the structure of the sonnet that makes the verse, as it is inside the method of a work of art that contains the key to genuine understanding. The composition and craftsmanship of a sonnet can uncover numerous things about the importance of a sonnet. The strict strategy for "Byzantium", with its iambic pentameter and terza rima, its ten syllable lines and accentuation on the even lines, reproduces the consistency of the Byzantine expressions it glorifies. "Sailing to Byzantium" is described by an exact and contained structure, particularly in its initial two verses. The primary sonnet containing eight three-line stanzas adjusts into a last couplet; the subsequent ballad is comprised of two four-line stanzas and finishes in two triplets. This sonnet is a coherent improvement of thought and feeling, containing no new turns or turns undermined intention. This is an impression of the substance of the refrain, which communicates a longing to break liberated from the weariness of something very similar. Expulsion of the other; it is the structure of verse mirrors the substance of the sonnet, in this Byzantium is an immobile world, and verse also is motionless, a serene archetype of the variable Chronicle so that Yeats accepts it to be.

4.3. Language and Tone in Yeats' Poetry

Language The language of Yeats' poetry is as straightforward as its theme. He makes use of a simple language to convey complex ideas and sentiments. Often he conveys his idea through a complex symbol. In 'Sailing to Byzantium', Yeats symbolizes the condition of life through the movement of fish. The fish always move forward and tireless just as human life goes on, and life is also full of pain like fish. In 'The Second Coming', the spirit of evil and anarchy has been symbolized through the rough beast which is approaching Bethlehem. The poet intends to convey that a great disaster is going to occur through a very simple reality, that a beastly animal is moving to Bethlehem. Similarly, 'Leda and the Swan' is the description of an abstract concept of rape of Europe and the sudden upsurge of the modern age, through a highly imaginative and concrete episode of Leda being raped by Zeus in the form of a Swan. Thus, profound ideas and sentiments are conveyed through simple and lucid language.

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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet. He was a leading figure of twentieth-century literature. He is a pillar of the literary establishment in Ireland. He assisted in founding the Abbey Theatre, and also served as Senator of the Free Irish State for two terms. Behind the Irish Literary Revival, he was among the leading force along with Edward Martyn, Lady Gregory, and many others.

The poetry of Yeats is featured with Irish Legends and occult. His first collection of poems was published in 1889. The poems in this collection are slow-paced and lyrical and indebted to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edmund Spenser, and poets of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His 20 th -century poetry was more realistic and physical. In his poetry, he renounced his transcendental beliefs and remained highly preoccupied with the spiritual and physical mask. He also talks about the cyclic theories of life in his poetry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.

A Short Biography of William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born on 13 th June 1865 in Dublin, Ireland, to John Yeats and Susan Mary Pollexfen. He was the eldest son of the family. His father was a lawyer, and when Yeats was born, he left his profession. Yeats’ early years of life were spent in London and also made frequent visits to Ireland.  His father studied arts in London.

In 1880, Yeats, while attending the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, pursued his own interest in arts. In 1885, he published his poems in the Dublin University Review. Soon after publishing, Yeats abandoned the art school.

Beginning of Literary Career

In the second half of the 1880s, Yeats encountered Lionel Johnson, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde. He also met Maud Gonne, a staunch supporter of Irish independence. Maud Gonne was a revolutionary woman and became a muse for Yeats for many years. Yeats proposed to her for marriage several times, but de declined. In 1892, Yeats published a drama Countess Cathleen, which was dedicated to her.

It was during this time that Yeats established the poetry group Rhymer’s Club with Ernest Rhys. He also joined the organization Order of the Golden Dawn. The organization discusses topics related to mysticism and occult. Yeats was much fascinated with the fantastical elements. His interests in the folktales of Ireland were the sources of his poetry. The title of his collection The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems published in 1889 was drawn from the account of a mythic Irish hero. 

Celebrated Poet and Playwright

Besides poetry, Yeats also wrote plays. He became associated with Lady Gregory and to write works for the Irish theatre. In 1902, Yeats and Lady Gregory collaborated for the production of Cathleen Ni Houlihan . Yeats, during this time, also assisted in founding the National Theatre Society of Ireland. He also served as the president and co-editor along with John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory. Soon more plays were produced, and among them, the most celebrated was Deirdre, At the Hawk’s Well, and On Baile’s Strand.

In 1917, he married George Hyde-Lees. Following the marriage, Yeats entered into a new period of creativity by means of experiments with automatic writing. Yeats and his newly wedded wife would sit together for writing. They both believed that the forces from the spirit world would guide them. From his belief in the spiritual world, Yeats had formulated his intricate theories of human history and nature. The couple had two children: William Michael (son) and Anne (daughter).

Due to his services for establishing Irish Literature, Yeats soon became a political figure in the new Free State of Ireland. In 1922, he became a senator and served for six years. In 1923, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The official website of Nobel Prize asserts that Yeats was given the prize “for his always inspired poetry, which is a highly artistic form that gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.”

Yeats wrote poetry and other works till his late days. Important works of his late years include A Vision, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Tower, and Words for Music Perhaps and Other Poems. On 28 th January 1939, Yeats died in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. Shortly after his death, his collection Last Poems and Two Plays was published.

The Writing Style of William Butler Yeats

Yeats is regarded as one of the key poets of the twentieth century in the English language. He is known as a Symbolist poet. He used suggestive imagery and symbolic structures throughout his literary works. He decides on words and arranges them in a unique style that they also suggest the significant and resonating abstract ideas , in addition to a surface meaning. His writing style is mainly based on the use of symbols, which is mostly physical, that gives two meanings: literal and suggestive. Moreover, his symbols have immaterial and timeless qualities. They are applicable and comprehensible in every period.

Yeats has mastered a traditional verse form in his poetry. He does not practice free verse like other modernists. However, Yeats’s writing has been influenced by modernism. The modernism features can be seen in his rejection of more conventional poetic diction that he used in his early work. In his later works, the language is more serious; he directly approaches themes that significantly characterize his plays and poetry of his middle period. The works of the middle period are Responsibilities, The Green Helmet, and In the Seven Wood.

Yeats wrote his later poetry and played in a more personal style. These works were written in the last twenty years of his life. Yeats also refers to his daughter and son in these works. Moreover, these works are full of meditations of growing old. In the poem “The Circus Animals,” Yeats describes the motivation for his late works as:

“Now that my ladder’s gone

I must lie down where all the ladders start

In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.”

The early poetry of Yeats is heavily based on the myths and folklore of the Irish language. His later works focus more on contemporary issues. The shift of subject from folklore to contemporary issues marks a dramatic transformation in Yeats’s style. His works, and so as his style, can be divided into three periods. The poems written in the early phase are purely Pre-Raphaelite in tone, intentionally elaborated, and silted (according to the unsympathetic critics). At that time, Yeats wrote epic poems, The Wanderings of Oisin and The Isle of Statues. Other poems that he wrote in his early phase are lyrical and based on the subject of the esoteric and mystical subject and themes of love.

In the middle period, Yeats abandoned the writing style of Pre-Raphaelites that was the staunch feature of his early work. In the middle period, he adopted the Landor-style of social ironism. The critics who admire the middle period works of Yeats may feature it as having flexible yet powerful rhythm and also severely modernist, whereas those critics who do not admire his middle period works find his poems as barren with weak imagination.

The latter works of Yeats were based on the mystical system and extract its inspiration from it. Under the influence of spiritualism, Yeats began to work out a mystical system for himself. The poetry of this period, in many ways, marks Yeats’s return to the vision of his earlier works. He reproduced the theme of The Wandering Oisin in his late work, A Dialogue Between Self and Soul . Both poems deal with the subject of opposition between the spiritually-minded man of God and the worldly-minded man of the sword.

Critics also claim that the way Pablo Picasso covered his transition between the paintings Yeats also covered his transition from the poetry of the nineteenth-century to the twentieth century. However, some inquire whether the late poetry of Yeats has much in common with his contemporary modernists T. S. Eliot or the earlier.

The well-known poem of W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming,” is read by the modernist readers as a dirge for the decay of European civilization. The poem also explains the apocalyptical mystical theories of Yeats. The most important collections of Yeats poetry began with the publication of The Green Helmet in 1910, which was followed by Responsibilities in 1914. With the passing age, Yeats was getting more spare and powerful with the use of imagery. His poetry collection The Tower, The Winding Stair, and New Poems contain his most powerful imagery that features the modernist era of the twentieth century. 

The mystical inclinations, well-informed with Hinduism, occult, and theosophical beliefs are the basis of the late poetry of Yeats. However, some critics have claimed that his late poetry shows a lack of credibility. Yeats’ system of beliefs can be read in connection with his system of mysteries that are fundamental present in his book A Vision published in 1925.

There are two common methods by which Yeats wrote poetry. The first method is spontaneous, whereas the other process is laborious and involves substitution and alteration . His spontaneous method belongs to his early period of writing, and he relied chiefly upon the inspiration and temptation of artistic creation without any effort. Whereas, in the later periods of his writing, he inflicted upon himself great pains and polish his verses time and again. Like Ernest Hemingway, he was a painstaking writer who attempted to say in the best possible words. His late artistic method is greatly depicted in his poems. For example, in the “Adam’s Curse,” he writes:

“I said, “All line will take us hours may be;

Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought

Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.”

Throughout his long literary career, Yeats continued to mature and grow like an artisan, and this the most admirable thing about Yeats. His poetry is characterized by the dreamy flourishing style dull of lulling rhythms. His early poetry has a mostly pensive and nostalgic tone. Like Edmund Spenser, his poetry also had an abundance of exaggerated imagery. 

It is so admirable that a great poet like Yeats soon grew dissatisfied with his ornate style in verse, and attempted to make his verse more simple, and bringing it near to the ordinary speech of daily use. He abandoned the archaism and poeticism in his poetry. In his later poetry, the imager also turned more certain, appropriate, and developed a sharp quality. Yeats’ superfluity and verbiage changed to intensity and potent.  He started using brief and terse diction, and consequently, his poetry matured in density.

At the same time, Yeats also attempted to develop “ passionate syntax .” In doing so, he became master of modulating the rhythm of his poetry so as to be aligned in the spirit of the poem. Yeats’s style is prominent in his poems “Sailing to Byzantium,” “The Second Coming,” “The Tower,” “Among the School Children,” and “Easter 1916.” Even one of his earliest poems, “When You are Old,” also shows this style. 

It is astonishing to see the developed assurance and confidence in Yeats’ later poetic style. He employed accurate and definite rhythm, and most importantly, it matches the demands of sublimity and grandeur of language and subject without putting much effort. Yeats’ language became very practical. It has developed into sharp and became adapted to an inclusive range of ideas and concepts. He can easily put simple facts in simple words. For example, in the poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” he says:

“An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick.”

Similarly, in the poem “Vacillation,” he uses simple but sharps words:

“What theme had Homer but original sin?”

After developing his style, Yeats was able to use his poetry to employ various effects of calm or exhortation, passionate or philosophizing condemnation, celebration or lamentation, Prophecy, or nostalgia. His command over the meter and versification was also remarkable during his early period. At that time, he also had close correspondence between the mood and language for his escapist poem (his early poetry is much associated with the escapist poetry of Romanticism). In order to keep the fantastical atmosphere in his early poems, he employed half-spelled rhythm. To get the effect of the fantastical world, Yeats manipulated meditative and wavering rhythm in the poem “The Wind Among the Reeds.

Similarly, in order to keep pace with the theme of the poem in his later poetry, Yeats developed more varied, subtler, and intensely more adaptable rhythms. He also used a more inclusive vocabulary. Consequently, his metaphors appeared to be fresh with a wide range of references. Metaphorical aphorism is also observed in his poetry. Yeats’s perfect poetic use of epigram gives a shock of surprise to his readers. For example:

In his later poetry, again in keeping with his thematic content, Yeats was able to develop subtler, more varied, and dramatically more adaptable rhythms. His vocabulary had also become more inclusive. As a result, the metaphors were fresher and their range of reference wider. We also find that he employs the metaphorical aphorism. His use of epigram is a properly poetic one, giving the reader a shock of surprise. For example: in The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, he says:

“Out of Ireland have we come.

Great hatred, little room,

Maimed us at the start.

I carry from my mother’s womb

A fanatic heart.”

In Yeats’s poetry, the imaginative structure of the poems and its real expression appears to be definitely polished, natural, and spontaneous in effect.

Right up to the end of his literary career, Yeats continuously grew and matured. With his growth, he developed more confidence and assertion. Moreover, he carried words effortlessly with masterly skills. However, his self-confidence results in his propensity to treat exaggeration and hyperbolas. Various critics considered his inclination towards exaggeration and the use of hyperbolas his serious flaw. While commenting on weakness in Yeats’s poetry, D.S. Savage writes that his exaggeration and over-heightening, his indulgence in intensity are demonstrated in his frequent use of hyperbolic phrases and same-sounding words whose sole effect is to raise the meaning.

To conclude, William Butler Yeats was a gifted and conscious artist who cannot be equaled but by few artists. Certainly, the style of Yeats has some flaws, and these flaws are serious; however, these flaws do not dominate his true greatness as an artist. He wrote poetry from the inner urge, which provides his poetry with a unique inner glow and aspiration. His poetry is placed among the political monuments if it is not placed among the monuments of timeless intellect.

Works Of William Butler Yeats

• Sailing to Byzantium
• The Second Coming

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W.B. Yeats: Writing Style & Poetry

2024, Gulfam Rashid

The poetry of W.B. Yeats is known for its depth and complexity and is characterized by many distinct features and themes. Some of the key characteristics of W.B. Yeats's writing style and poetry are discussed in this essay. 1. Introduction 2. W.B. Yeats's Writing Style 3. Conclusion 4. References

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This article examines the relation between the late poetry of W. B. Yeats and the concept of modernism. The article first surveys possible approaches to the problem, whether positioning Yeats as a high modernist, a proto-modernist, or an anti-modernist, and in so doing it teases out competing notions of modernism, as both a descriptive and an evaluative category. Rather than comparing Yeats with a T. S. Eliot, an Ezra Pound, or a W. H. Auden, the article then juxtaposes his late poetry with contemporary works by Charles Madge and Louis Zukofsky, whose relations to high modernism are also ambiguous and vexed. The aim here is twofold: first, to offer a new perspective on Yeats’s late poetry, which is often neglected by broader studies of modernism; and second, to offer through such unfamiliar pairings a way to test our accepted notions of modernism itself.

Beginning of Yeats: Introduction "Our thoughts are not, as we suppose, the deep but the foam upon the deep."-W.B. Yeats in his The Philosophy of Shelley's Poetry (1900) Symbols, in their exactness means the presence of a meaning which is more substantial than it seems on the surface and perhaps we owe it to symbols that there exist more than a singular meaning of the device that projects them. Uses of images and symbols are only one of the natural devices deployed in the art of poetry to reverberate and enhance the meaning of any piece of work into a non-linear one, to have multi-dimensional interpretations of it, ultimately to reach out to a broader audience with an even broader message. One of the most prominent and highly celebrated artists, who was the chief representative of the symbolist movement in English Literature, W.B Yeats has densely incorporated personalised symbols in his work in order to enhance the reality of present and mystery and richness of past. He uses an adapt arsenal of symbols across work that we shall try and map out while using the poems we have in our syllabus; No Second Troy (1916), The Second Coming (1920), Leda and the Swan (1924) and Sailing to Byzantium (1928) and some extensive investigation into the evolving author.

William Butler Yeats had a lifelong expectancy of writing poetry that brought him to revelation, to a kind of apocalyptic vision that he hungered for. In his Autobiographies he tells how, “deprived of orthodox religious belief by the skepticism of his father, he had turned to imaginative literature to find or create there the ‘sacred book of the arts.’ Such a book would provide the modern reader with powerful symbols, with “liberating images, which working through the collective mind would restore humanity to something of that unity of culture that it had, so Yeats supposed, enjoyed before the rise of science and analytic, rather than imaginative modes of thought” (YO 131). Yeats once remarked that he “had an unshakable conviction that invisible gates would open, as they opened for Blake, as they opened for Swedenborg, as they opened for Boehme” (A 254).

This Research primarily focuses on the Romantic Elements for Modernist poet and critic William Butler Yeats's poems in order to demonstrate Romanticism's contribution to the so called modernist movement in terms of idealism. It begins with a demonstration of Yeats as a representative of Romanticism and the explanation of the crucial Romantic traits. The Romantic features concentrates imagination, emotion, nature and beauty. Then it continues with a revelation of as a Modernist poet who has romantic roots and When we a romantic and modernist. further, it maintains Yeats as a Romantic Modernist as an example to Yeats's shinning star among romantic poets. Finally. They have a number of similarities that constitute their basic principles. This research aims to depict that the artists are influenced by the social, political, cultural and economic developments that occur in their time and shape their artistic visions according to their thoughts about the crisis. William Butler Yeats reflects his reaction to his current social problems by protesting the established order and mostly create substitutes for reality which are idealized human beings in order to avoid the effect of time and mortal limitations. In addition to this, he tries to reflect an romantic world to be more active and creative soul, which he cannot achieve to have in the material realm. Therefore, he depicts this ideal world in a transcendental level. While idealizing human beings the artists demonstrate a human paradox which indicates the thirst to live forever. At the end it displays a picture that the human beings are transient however, immortality can be achieved through creating a work of art and will be remembered forever.

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W.B. Yeats Sample Essay: A Great Irish Poet

“yeats can certainly be called a great irish poet”. .

Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to both the themes and language found in the poetry of W. B. Yeats on your course. Introduction

This is used to contrast the harmony of nature to his own feelings. Obviously the poet wants to escape the pavement gray of London. The major theme raised in this poem is escapism, rather than just the love of nature. To further emphasise this harmony Yeats uses assonance and alliteration:

(Tip: try to give some evidence, quotations in this case, for each point you make).

The peace and harmony of nature sharply contrast with the desperate heroism of Countess Markievicz, Thomas McDonagh and Yeats’s other heroes. It emphasises their contribution to the history of this country.

The poet found that the act of the bees building in the crevices of loosening masonry  is similar to his idea of what the Irish people should be aspiring to do in Stare’s Nest by My Window . This is a fascinatingly precise image. The bees symbolise the Irish people who should commit themselves to the hard work of helping to restore the country; the loosening masonry is the fading away British presence. (Other interpretations of loosening masonry are an unstable society. Write about it in a way that resonates with you.)

See another W.B. Yeats essay featuring all of the above poems as well as  Sailing to Byzantium and The Second Coming  (paid content)

• Post author: Martina
• Post published: November 9, 2010
• Post category: English / Poetry / W.B. Yeats

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Hey I was wondering if you have a essay on Gerard manly Hopkins

Thanks for the question.

I'm afraid Hopkins wasn't on the curriculum in my day so I can't help you with it.

Good luck and I hope these essays are helpful to you

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W.B. Yeats’ Style

W. B. Yeats is one of the greatest poets of the English language. He had in common two main methods of writing poetry: one spontaneous and the other a laborious process involving much alteration and substitution. However, it was only in the early phase of his poetic career that he relied entirely on inspiration giving himself upto “the chief temptation of the artistic creation without toil”. In the later phase he became a conscious artist who took great pains and re-polish his verse . He was very painstaking artist and tried to say what he has to say in the best possible words. Following lines from “Adams’s Curse” throw valuable side light on his artistic methods:

I said, “All line will take us hours may be; Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.”

One of the most admirable things about Yeats was that he continued to grow and mature as a craftsman throughout his long poetic career. His early poetry has a dreamy luxuriant style full of sleepy languorous rhythms. The tone is mostly wistful and nostalgic in these poems. There is an abundance of ornate word pictures as in Spenser.

It is a great tribute to Yeats craftsman that he soon grew dissatisfied with verse of this sort and tried to bring his versification nearer to the day to day speech. Along with this he tried to give a new directness and precision to his poetic language. He did away with archaism and poeticism. His imagery also became more definite and accurate and acquired a new pithy quality. Verbiage and superfluity start giving way to vigour and intensity. His diction now became terse and his poetry grew in density.

Simultaneously, Yeats tried to develop what may be called “passionate syntax ” and he came to have remarkable skill in modulating his rhythm so as to be in time with the spirit of the poem . This skill is greatly evident in poems like “The Second Coming”, “Sailing to Byzantium”, “The Tower”, “Easter 1916” and “Among School Children” and even in one of his earliest poems “When You are Old”.

The confidence and assurance found in his poetic style in the later years is astounding. His rhythms were very definite and accurate and above all he could now do justice to demands of grandeur and sublimity with effortless ease. His language became very functional. It has now grown trenchant and adaptable to wide range of ideas. When he chooses he can put the starkest facts into the starkest words. As he says in “Sailing to Byzantium”:

An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick

Starkest words as used in “Vacillation”:

“What theme had Homer but original sin?”

He was now able to use poetry for a variety of effects – whether it was exhortation or calm comment, philosophizing or passionate condemnation, lamentation or celebration, nostalgia or prophesy. This does not mean that Yeats’ command over versification and metre was in any way less remarkable during his early poetic career. Even at the time he was able to have close correspondence between the mood of those escapist poems and the language he chose for them. In keeping with the other-worldly atmosphere of his early poetry, his rhythms also were half-entranced. In a collection like “The Wind Among the Reeds” he was able to manipulate wavering and meditative rhythms to great effect.

In his later poetry, again in keeping with his thematic content, Yeats was able to develop subtler, more varied and dramatically more adjustable cadences. His vocabulary had also become more inclusive. As a result, the metaphors were fresher and their range of reference wider. We also find that he employs the metaphorical aphorism . His use of epigram is a properly poetic one, giving the reader a shock of surprise. For example:

Out of Ireland have we come. Great hatred, little room, Maimed us at the start.

The imaginative structure of the poem and its actual manifestation came to be more firmly worked out and more spontaneous and natural in effect.

As an artist Yeats continued to mature and grow right upto the end of his poetic career. His confidence and assurance grew more and more and he handled words with perfect ease like a master. However, this very self-assurance accounts for his tendency to indulge in hyperboles and exaggerations. This tendency to exaggerate and use hyperboles has been considered a serious fault in his style by a number of critics. D. S. Savage criticizing this weakness in Yeats’ poetry writes:

This exaggeration and over-heightening, this indulgence in dramatics, is exemplified in the repeated use of hyperboles phrases and of resounding words whose effect is to inflate the meaning.

To sum up Yeats was a conscious and gifted craftsman who has few equals in the whole range of English poetry. It is true that there are some serious faults in his poetry but they do not detract in any way from his true greatness as an artist. He wrote from inner compulsion which gave to his poetry “its peculiar inner glow, as of inspiration, and classes it among our political monuments, if not precisely among “monument of unaging intellect”.