Under Ben Bulben

Front 1

Poetry as a Trade:

Back 1

“Irish poets learn your trade,”

Offers advice, profession has set of skills and techniques, passed from generations. Must serve apprenticship and learn skills.

Hint 1

“Irish poets...”

Front 2

The new generation:

Back 2

“Scorn the sort now growing up [...]”

“Their unremembering hearts and heads

Base-born products of base beds.”

Increasingly devoid of morailty and honour (base), no longer remember decency and virtue.

Hearts cannot comprehend subtle and complex emotions e.g. Byzantine art or Yeats’ poetry.

Heads - forgot county’s heritage, culture, tradition.

Children are inheriting negative characteristics.

They should never be used as subject for poetry - perhaps avoided altogether.

Hint 2

"Scorn the sort..."

"Their unremembering..."

Front 3

Proper Sources of Inspiration:

Back 3

Confined to “Sing whatever is well made.” by craftsmen (Byzantium), nature, genetics and upbringing.

Pesentry - poor farmers in west, extreame poverty contrasts new middle class.

“Hard-riding country gentlemen” contrast middle class catholic business owners fumbling in greasy till. Grace and power.

Ireland’s monks - foucsed, disiplined, not materialistic like Catholics. Admires artistry e.g. Book of Kells.

“Sing the Lords and Ladies gay / That were beaten into the clay.” Fought for generations, beaten but rose again for “several centuries”. Lived and died energetically and valued art - “gay”.

Hint 3

"Sing whatever..."

"Hard-riding..."

"Sing the Lords and..."

Front 4

Looking into the past:

Back 4

“Cast your mind on other days” - remember history for inspiration. Inspirations increasingly rare in Yeats’ time + today. Today’s ilk not suitible subject matter for poetry.

Hint 4

"Cast your..."

Front 5

Yeat's Grave:

Back 5

Imagines after death - 3rd person. Describes homecoming: beloved county Sligo (was haunted by Ben Bualben from youth):

"Under bare Ben Bulben's head... Yeats in laid."

Family connection to church: "An ancestor was rector here long ago."

Buried near "an ancient cross" - symbolises engagement w/ Irish history, heritage.

Made from "limestone quarried near this spot" over marble. Yeats will decay into countryside.

Gravestone not marked with "conventional phrase". Poem signifies life's lack of meaning.

Hint 5

"Under Ben Bulben's..."

"An ancestor..."

"an ancient..."

"limestone quarried..."

"conventional..."

Front 6

Theme: The Role of the Artist:

Back 6

Aspiring poets must understand: more than just ideas but practice and skill. Like a trade, hard work gives mastery.

Poetry as a trade serves function: recording days gone by.

Resistant Irishy may succumb to modernity - just another chain in capitalistic network?

Poets show what Ireland was and could be again. Spur us to be indomitable.

Front 7

Theme: Yeat's Ideal Society:

Back 7

Anglo-Irish - Protestant landowners. Restrained, tasteful mansions, formal lifestyle, devotion to art and culture.

New class - middle catholic. AI power has waned.

No morality, subtle emotions, physically inferior. This is snobbish - Yeats happy when they worked the fields.

Yeats being a spiritualist, longs for a time past before science, medieval simplicity. No fan of capitalism and materialism.

Front 8

Theme: Yeat's Ideal Person:

Back 8

Admires energy. Porter drinker, horse-rider, light-hearted lords and ladies.

Admire's sacrifice of life. L+L rise up again and again in almost cheerful manner.

Admires sacrifice for principles: monks.

Admires clarity of thought: casting cold eye.

Admires authenticity of peasantry: simple lives, without modern stresses. In touch with nature and culture.

Front 9

Theme: Permanence and Change:

Back 9

We are all horsemen, traveling through life. Horse of time carries us forward without pause. We must access our lives in a calm and coldly rational way. Accept death as ultimate destination = emotional freedom from anxiety and failure.

Front 10

Imagery:

Back 10

Combines powerful, logical argument with memorable images. In Part V, images fly by. VI contrasts with lingering, panning camera. Closes with haunting image of horseman.

Front 11

Tone and Atmosphere:

Back 11

Tone shifts from righteous, commanding, angry to calmness and detachment. Matter-of-factness echos message.