William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was one of the most prominent writers of the twentieth-century. Among his most famous poems on variety of subjects “Easter 1916” was one of the significant symbolic poems dedicated to the Irish freedom fighters. As Brich claims that, “Yeats served as a senator of the Irish Free State (2009)” so his writing had great impact in creating independent Irish society through his symbolic poem “Easter 1916”. Yeats saw poetic symbols as having power through both “pre-ordained…

The Efficacy of the 1957 film Oedipus Rex to Convey Sophocles’ Intended Meaning The William Butler Yeats adaptation of the play, Oedipus the King, directed by Sir Tyrone Guthrie, is said to provide the most realistic viewing experience compared to what one would’ve witnessed in Sophocles’ day. The Stratford Shakespearean Festival Foundation successfully produces a piece that stays true to the genre of Greek drama and tragedy; the regal, yet, expressive, way in which the actors spoke, the…

tension with Great Britain, William Butler Yeats often voiced his opinions on the state of Ireland and its people. In W.B. Yeats’ poem, “September, 1913”, he emphasizes and expresses these opinions. Yeats stresses how nationalism can fuel Ireland, yet criticizes Ireland’s people for their greed and overwhelming self-interest. In “Easter, 1916”, though, Yeats shifts away from the people of Ireland, and instead summarizes the tension between Great Britain and Ireland. Yeats often brings up how…

William Butler Yeats was one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century; his works were inspiring and embraced a culture lost with the changing of times in Ireland. Yeats was born in the spring of 1865, to John Butler Yates and Susan Mary Pollexfen, during the time of the protestant ascendancy in Ireland; he was the oldest one of his three siblings. His father John, dissatisfied with his current standings, dropped out from law school to pursue a career as a painter and became a well…

William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin but moved from place to place. He spent the time of his childhood in County Sligo. In 1876, he moved with his father to London to pursue his father's career in art. WB Yeats moved back to Dublin and was educated there. He spent his summer in the west of Ireland in the family's summer house at Connaught. In 1917 Yeats, bought the Thoor Ballyle near Coole Park. He restored the Thoor Ballyle and he made it into his summer home. “The world is full of magic…

William Butler Yeats’’ famous poem The Second Coming illustrates a scary prediction of the occurrence when the world comes to an end. Obviously, with the title The Second Coming the assumption is as if the poem discloses Jesus Christ returning as the Bible states, but Yeats’ poem is not about Jesus Christ return. Beginning in the first stanza, Yeats’’ describes the anarchy and disorder in the world. He used gyre to depict his vision of the world as a storm or chaos as a tornado or funnel. Chaos…

Fear the Faerie Folk Children have heard the stereotypical fairy tales from their elders for generations. Within each story falls certain characters- many of whom seem to share the same archetypal role. The maiden in distress, the clever trickster, the handsome and noble royal. One of these literary tropes is the use of a supernatural spirit- and this character changes depending heavily on where the story is being told as well as its influences. For many children coming from Celtic heritage, a…

Myth and Its Revision. Myths gain a literary autonomy as they evolve through time into sovereign narratives used as socio-cultural foundational texts. Mythic sources may originate or accrue from religious, historical, political, or cultural references, but each of these sources holds: “ a double power. It [the myth] exists or appears to exist objectively, in the public sphere, and consequently confers on the writer the sort of authority unavailable to someone who writes "merely" of the private…

The book, “Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe gets its name from the poem, “The Second Coming”, by W. B. Yeats. These two written works have many things in common. They share a common theme and back it up with several literary elements. However, “The Second Coming” by W.B Yeats isn’t the only poem similar to the book, “Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe. “Things Fall Apart” is also similar to another poem called “Welcome Change”, by Gina Whitacre. All three of these pieces of literature…

The poem ‘Leda and the Swan’ by William Butler Yeats retells a renown story from Greek mythology. According to the myth, Leda, a queen of Sparta, was raped or seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan. Leda then gave birth to three eggs, one of which did not hatch. The other two gave life to Helen (of Troy) and Pollux, who are assumed to be children of Zeus, and Castor and Clytemnestra, children of Leda’s husband Tyndareus. In the poem, Yeats alludes to the Trojan war and depicts unusually violent…