William Butler Yeats- analytical essay
After reading many of Yeats ' poems, I chose three to analyze. I chose
The song of Wandering Aengus, because we read it in class, and it has a type of
mystical beauty that I am attracted to. I also picked The Second Coming,
because it is a controversial poem of Yeats'. It frightened people, because it told
of the end of the world, and poems were not usually written about such things.
The third poem I chose was Leda and the Swan, because it tells of a story that is
very important in mythology. By analyzing these three poems, I had found the
deeper meaning of the diction.
THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
-
The Song of Wandering Aengus reflects Yeats' study of mythology and
mysticism. The first stanza is mostly denotative in
meaning, and it tells of a man going fishing for trout. His diction is very
descriptive, as shown in the phrase "moth-like stars," and he uses connotation in
the line "Because a fire was in my head," which showed the speaker's
determination to go fishing.
The second stanza is also mostly denotative, but Yeats makes use of his
occult influence by writing about the "glimmering girl," who is a water nymph from
the stream the speaker was fishing at. In mythology, there are many water
nymphs that live in bodies of water, and Yeats is using his knowledge of such
creatures by creating the "glimmering girl" in his poem. He shows that she has
powers in the line where she "faded through the brightening air," because no
mortal could make themselves appear to fade away.
The speaker is an old man, as he states in the third stanza: "Though I am
old with wandering." That line also gives meaning to the title of the poem, The
Song of Wandering Aengus, because that is his name, and he is a man that has
"wandered," or traveled through many lands, like "hollow lands and hilly lands."
The last stanza is written as:
"Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun."
It describes how the man hopes to find the young beauty, and embrace
her youth and her love. The use of the word "wandering" also tells of how the
man has aged while searching for the water nymph who called out to him one
day while he was fishing. The last three lines show how the speaker hopes to
spend the rest of his life in happiness with her, once he finds her. "The silver
apples of the moon, the golden apples of the sun" are the days and nights
passing by.
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-
Some of Yeats' poetry was not acceptable to people, because of his
idiosyncratic beliefs. People found his interest in mysticism and the occult to be
peculiar behavioral characteristics, and when he wrote The Second Coming,
many people feared the poem, because of its controversial topic: the second
coming of Christ, and the end of civilization right along with Him.
The poem is in two stanzas: the first one describes the world in chaos,
and the second describes what the speaker thinks is the reason. In the first
stanza, things are not what they ought to be. For example, "things fall apart,"
and "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." No one is innocent anymore,
because "the ceremony of innocence is drowned."
In the second stanza, the speaker believes something is revealed to the
world, and it must be the second coming of Christ, or Judgment Day. The
speaker sees a sight "out of Spiritus Mundi," or out of the Christian beliefs. He
sees a sphinx, the "shape with lion body and head of a man" awake from
2000 years of "stony sleep" while the human race lived with their wars and
technology and evolution. Yeats uses imagery to show the sphinx slowly coming
to bring the end of the world, while "desert birds," or people who try to stop the
sphinx fail. The first line, "Turning and turning in the widening gyre" tells of
Yeats' belief that the world is set in a circular pattern of ways, and the gyre
widening means it is time for the next phase: the coming of Christ. The very last
line, "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards
Bethlehem to be born?" leaves readers with the image of the sphinx heading
towards the birthplace of Jesus, and the fear of the end of the world.
Although the poem is very powerful in its literal meaning of the world
coming to an end after a 2000 year cycle, it can also be read to depict the
progression of human life. Chaos may still be in the world's future, but the
reason could be because of the first stanza's metaphorical meaning of
technology evolving faster than human life. "The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" may mean that humans can no longer
control what they created.
In the second stanza, the speaker tells of the second coming, perhaps to
warn humans to prepare themselves, but he is troubled by the sight of the end of
the world, and at the end of the poem, he does not believe there is any help for
the human race to save themselves.
LEDA AND THE SWAN
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnond dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
-
Leda and the Swan is a poem based on the mythological story about the
rape of Leda, a mortal woman who was married to the mortal man, Tyndareus,
but the god of gods, Zeus, wanted to have her. Zeus was known for taking
advantage of women by posing as various animals, like a bull, or like objects, such as
a shower of gold. When he chose to have Leda, he took the form of a swan,
hence the title of the poem.
The poem tells of the actual situation of Zeus having sex with Leda in
the shape of a swan. The lines "How can those terrified vague fingers push the
feathered glory from her loosening thighs?" show that his power is far greater
than hers, and she cannot fight to stop him, and "A shudder in the loins
engenders there" describes Leda becoming pregnant with Helen, who is to
become the most beautiful woman alive, and is courted by thousands of
men.
The rest of the poem follows:
"The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?"
The end of the poem is foreshadowing the Trojan War, which was caused
by Helen, "the face that launched a thousand ships." The mortal man, Paris, had
been given her as a reward for choosing Goddess Aphrodite as the most
beautiful, because Zeus would not choose between his wife, Hera, his favorite
daughter, Athena, and his ally, Aphrodite. Helen was married, but all the Greek suitors
had sworn an oath to accept and protect her marriage, so the Greeks had to sail to
Troy to get her back from Paris. "The broken wall, the burning roof and tower"
describe the destruction of the city of Troy during the war, and "Agamemnon
dead" foreshadows the killing of Agamemnon, one of Greece's greatest fighters,
by his wife's lover, after he returned from the war.
The last two lines of the poem are a question about Leda: "Did she put on
his knowledge with his power before the indifferent beak could let her drop?" It is
a question that asks if Leda had any idea what would happen in the future as the
outcome of her having sex with Zeus.
My teacher's comment (1999) on the entire paper, not just the above sections
that I have chosen to display:
"My impression continues to be that you have much promise, this effort
demonstrates a work ethic, and ability to write well, good organizational skills,
planning, and an ability to meet the deadline. It is, in fact, precisely what I had in mind
when I assigned the paper - an exairsion, exploratory but thorough in nature, that leads to
deepening and broadening of your understanding. Fine work, Jennifer.
Congratulations."
(I received an A++ on my report. Neeeheeeheeeheee. Now I
am insane. Thank you.)
back to writing
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