{"id":907,"date":"2012-06-05T18:25:23","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T16:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teachenglishtoday.org\/?p=907"},"modified":"2012-06-11T08:36:51","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T06:36:51","slug":"two-yeats-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/2012\/06\/two-yeats-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Yeats poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>

Two Yeats poems<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

(Adapted from an article published by S K King, in CRUX, April-June 1972)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Wild Swans at Coole<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will perhaps be difficult for children to appreciate this poem fully. It shares the general sorrow that the most beautiful things cannot be kept; but most of all it expresses a personal sorrow at the poet\u2019s loss of youth. Yeats sees again after nineteen years the wild swans which seem never to lose life, strength or beauty; \u2018passion or conquest\u2019 \u2018attend upon them still\u2019, and his own loss of these very things must come home to the poet. \u2018All\u2019s changed\u2019 for him since that time he \u2018trod with a lighter tread\u2019.<\/p>\n

The poem has that perfection which makes it appear simple, and only on reflection does one see how much the packed, yet seemingly easy language implies. This anyone must soon appreciate \u2013 how much, for instance, the first stanza suggests \u2013 the colour, the stillness (and the poet wandering through it) of the paths round the lovely lake, full, cool, with its reflections. Everything is put so simply that there must be delight in dwelling on the lines to get their full impression. What is not so immediately apparent is the masterly movement of the lines. The stanza form has been built by Yeats exactly for this purpose, and is so perfect that the speaking of the poem deserves an infinite care to get the intended rhythm. I know of no other poem which surpasses it in this. There is a constant definiteness of emphasis in a movement mostly slow, without any roughness, all quiet, yet intense. The long third and fifth lines of each stanza are demanding, and anyone with an ear would delight in getting them right.<\/p>\n

The whole poem demands a slow deliberation, even the lines which describe the swans\u2019 movements, strong and sure of purpose.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>An Irish Airman Foresees His Death<\/strong><\/p>\n

A point that one needs to be careful about with this poem is the emphasis. The poem fundamentally is about the love of life (as all Yeats\u2019 poetry is) and Yeats and the Irish Airman into whose experience he invites us, are not at all dwelling on \u2018death\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is exulting in the thrill of flying – \u00a0its danger and challenge to the whole man. \u2018This death\u2019 is consciously there, but not primarily. It comes last in the poem, and it is \u2018this life\u2019, the fullness of living in the adventure of flying a war plane, that has made anything else seem \u2018waste of breath\u2019. Every word in the poem needs to be given its weight \u2013 what for instance \u2018waste\u2019 implies about the possibilities of ways of living. It is illuminating to read Yeats\u2019s other poem about the same Irish airman, \u2018In Memory of Major Robert Gregory\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wild Swans at Coole<\/p>\n

It will perhaps be difficult for children to appreciate this poem fully. It shares the general sorrow that the most beautiful things cannot be kept; but most of all it expresses a personal sorrow at the poet\u2019s loss of youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachenglishtoday.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}