The implications of Yeats’ inner perspective on World War I resonates with an air of prophecy regarding the negative undertones of future humankind on both a local and universal scale. The ramifications of conflict emerge as concepts in poems such as An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, which examines destiny and the meaning of giving our life to a greater cause. Furthermore, The Second Coming highlights Yeats’s opinion on the apocalyptic cycle of nature while The Wild Swans at Coole delves into the effects of realising the impermanence of our circumstances . Overall, Yeats explores the impact of social and political degradation through key issues including sacrifice, fate and the impermanence of life.
Our sacrifice and toil in the face of …show more content…
Yeats once again uses symbolism: “What is it but nightfall?” where ‘night’ is perhaps the universal end of civilisation as we know …show more content…
The Wild Swans at Coole endeavours to showcase Yeats’s concerns over his ageing condition which is juxtaposed with the youthful swan, “Their hearts have not grown old.” Using synecdoche, Yeats evidently draws our attentions to how the swans are free or are able to ignore ailments that people such as Yeats have suffered on a localised level; something he wishes he can achieve, but cannot fathom an understanding of: “But now they drift on the still water, / Mysterious, Beautiful.” Paradoxically, death also immortalises us in the impermanence of human history, seen through allusions to “MacDonagh and MacBride / And Connolly and Pearse,” where Yeats’s conflicting ideas of Irish Nationalism impact his need to remember those brave people who died for a greater cause. The negative implications of this conflict tie the universal to the impermanence of life and bring us to this realisation, once more using symbolism of air and ‘flown’ to effectively draw the reader’s attention to the world’s fleeting nature, “By what lake’s edge or pool / Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day / To find they have flown
Our sacrifice and toil in the face of …show more content…
Yeats once again uses symbolism: “What is it but nightfall?” where ‘night’ is perhaps the universal end of civilisation as we know …show more content…
The Wild Swans at Coole endeavours to showcase Yeats’s concerns over his ageing condition which is juxtaposed with the youthful swan, “Their hearts have not grown old.” Using synecdoche, Yeats evidently draws our attentions to how the swans are free or are able to ignore ailments that people such as Yeats have suffered on a localised level; something he wishes he can achieve, but cannot fathom an understanding of: “But now they drift on the still water, / Mysterious, Beautiful.” Paradoxically, death also immortalises us in the impermanence of human history, seen through allusions to “MacDonagh and MacBride / And Connolly and Pearse,” where Yeats’s conflicting ideas of Irish Nationalism impact his need to remember those brave people who died for a greater cause. The negative implications of this conflict tie the universal to the impermanence of life and bring us to this realisation, once more using symbolism of air and ‘flown’ to effectively draw the reader’s attention to the world’s fleeting nature, “By what lake’s edge or pool / Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day / To find they have flown