Presentation by: Katharina Bennewitz

1
LT 355 Modern Irish LiteratureLecturer Dr.
Bernhard Klein

• Yeatss Nationality and Literature Early
  Poetry

2
Nationality and Literature

• According to Frayne, Yeatss speech can be seen
  as an answer to two groups of adversaries, which
  are they?
• Why does Yeats use the imagery of a tree, what is
  it suppose to represent?
• What are the implications of Yeats's argument in
  this essay for Irish literature and the project
  of a cultural revival in which Yeats was
  implicated?
• Yeats distinguishes three distinct phases in
  national literature an epic, a dramatic, and a
  lyric period. How convincing do you find this
  model in general (Greece, England, Ireland) and
  with regard to Yeatss work?

3
Yeatss Hopes and Fears for Irish Literature
(1892)

• We must know and feel our national faults and
  limitations no less than our national virtues,
  and care for things Gaelic and Irish, not because
  we hold them better than things Saxon and
  English, but because they belong to us, and
  because our lives are to be spent among them,
  whether they be good or evil. ... It is our
  duty to care for that seed and tend it until it
  has grown to perfection after ist kind. (77)

4
Yeatss Early Poetry I

• The Rose published in 1893
• Appears in romantic tradition
• Features love for natural beauty, the
  supernatural and magic, and the desire for peace
  and an ideal world
• Settings presently I convinced myselfthat I
  should never go for the scenery of a poem to any
  country but my own, and I think that I shall hold
  to that conviction to the end (Yeats quoted In
  Rai 198348)
• His heroes, the heroes of ancient Ireland, could
  be identified with elemental beings, hurrying
  from unmeasured mind and pursuing forever the
  ideal beauty represented by the rose. (Rai 57f.)
• What does the Rose in the title stand for?

5
The Image of the Rose

• the rose as the symbol of final
  accomplishment/perfection
• as personification of eternal human spirit and of
  infinite love
• As symbol of order, beauty, and peace
• Rai suggests that the rose symbol most directly
  derives from Shelleys Intellectual Beauty
• Shelley Hymn to Intellectual Beauty

6
The Poems of The Rose

• In how far can you find these features in the
  individual poems?
• To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time
• Cuchullains Fight with the Sea
• The Rose of the World
• The Rose of Peace
• The Rose of Battle
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree
• The White Birds
• The Man Dreamed of Fairyland

7
The Image of the Rose

• In the notes to The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)
  he Yeats wrote The rose has been for many
  centuries a symbol of spiritual love and supreme
  beauty. One finds the Rose in the Irish
  poets, sometimes as a religious symbol as in a
  phrase, The Rose of Friday, meaning the rose of
  austerity, in a Gaelic poem in Dr. Hydes
  Religious Songs of Connacht, and I think was a
  symbol of womans beauty in the Gaelic Song.
  One may feel pretty certain that the ancient
  Celts associated the Rose with Eire, or Fotla, or
  Banba goddesses who gave their names to
  Ireland. (Rai 61)

8
Yeats Early Poetry II

• The Wind Among the Reeds published in 1899
• poem after poem expresses the feeling of
  world-weariness and boredom
• No happiness, no love, no beauty is possible in
  this world and the frustration can end only with
  the end of Time
• strong associations with natural elements and
  nature as a whole
• Supernatural, magical, and fairy-like features
• experiments with long flexible lines with space
  in it for hesitations and changes of mood
• Escape from harsh reality in fairyland/dreams
  (Rai 68ff.)

9
The Wind Among the Reeds

• In how far do you find the imagery and the
  features discussed in the poems of the cycle The
  Wind Among the Reeds?
• The Host of the Air
• The Song of Wandering Aengus
• ,The Cap and Bells
• , The Secret Rose
• , The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers
• , The Fiddler of Dooney
• What does the title stand for?
• Are there differences in theme, tone, or imagery
  in the two cycles of poetry?

10

• Thank you for your attention......

11
bibliography

• Yeats, William B..The Rose and The Wind Among the
  Reeds. In The Mayor Works. Oxford University
  Press, 1997, 12-36.
• Rai, Rama N..W.B.Yeats Poetic Theory and
  Practice. In Poetic Drama Poetic Theory. Dr.
  James Hogg ed. SalzburgUniversität Salzburg,
  1983, 46-82.
• Yeats, William B..Hopes and Fears for Irish
  Literature. In Poetry and Ireland since 1800 A
  Source Book. Mark Storey ed. London New York
  Routledge, 1988, 74-77.
• Yeats, William B..Nationality and Literature. In
  Poetry and Ireland since 1800 A Source Book.
  Mark Storey ed. London New York Routledge,
  1988, 85-92.