Throughout his career Yeats ,the
poet of Ireland explored the themes of Irish folklore and myths, themes and
settings to create a modern sophisticated poetry. The Irish themes come into
his poetry as the remembrance of the glorious past,the myths and legends,the
landscape,the heroes,the politics,and the criticism of English occupation.
The personal life of Yeats cannot be
separated from his poetry.It is even more true in his treatment of Irish themes
in his poetry.He reccurently treated the Irish elements in his poetry for the
following reasons.
His personal interest in mythology
and the oral traditions of folklore combined with high sense of nationalism
inspired him to create a poetry rich in the treatment of Celtic folklore and
mythology.So,the subject matter of his poetry,specially the early poetry
consists of the traditional Celtic folklore and myth. By incorporating into his
work the stories and characters of Celtic origin, Yeats endeavored to
encapsulate something of the national character of his beloved Ireland.
Secondly, during the early years of
Yeats, there was an ongoing literary revival of interest in Irish legend and
folklore. Books with such titles as Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and
Superstitions of Ireland, The Fireside Stories of Ireland, History of Ireland:
Cuculain and his Contemporaries, Irish Folklore, and dozens of others were
useful to the young Yeats.This also inspired Yeats to write on the Irish
themes.
Another important cause was his
childhood experience.Yeats's mother shared with her son her interest in
folklore, fairies, and astrology as well as her love of Ireland, particularly
the region surrounding Sligo in western Ireland where Yeats spent much of his
childhood. Yeats’s early mental makeup moulded his later literary career.
Thus,though he spent two thirds of his life outside of his motherland ,Yeats’s
poetic self was deeply rooted in Ireland.
Yeats’s fascination for Irish
elements mainly came from his meeting with the Irish nationalist Fenian John
O’Leary in 1885 Yeats. John O’Leary was instrumental in arranging for the
publication of Yeats's first poems in The Dublin University Review. Under the
influence of O'Leary, Yeats took up the cause of Gaelic writers at a time when
much native Irish literature was in danger of being lost as the result of
England's attempts to anglicize Ireland through a ban on the Gaelic language.
This and his connection with another society, the Contemporary Club, brought
Yeats into contact with a circle of nationalist intellectuals. He began to read
Irish literature, and his subsequent publications bore the marks of that new
interest.By the early years of the twentieth century Yeats had risen to
international prominence as a proponent of the Gaelic Revival and had published
numerous plays and peoms.
Now let us discuss some individual
poems to see how he treated Irish elements in his poems.The poems that clearly
reflect his nationalism are ’The Stolen Child’,Fergus and the Druid’,
Cuchulain’s Fight with the Sea’,The Hosting of the Sidhe’,Th Wild Swans a t
Coole’,Coole Park,Coole Park and Ballylee, At Galway Races, The Ballad of Moll
Magee” , “The Ballad of Father Gilligan etc.
Yeats’s fist notable interest in
Irish materials is seen in his early poem ’The Stolen Child’.The poem is based
on Irish legend and Irish setting.The poem,in which a fairy speaks to a human
child in a beguiling voice ,is set in Sligo,where the yeats used to spend their
holidays.The voice calls
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
The names of the places mentioned in
the poem are located in Sligo and the poem reflects the poet’s interest in the
belief in the supernatural that he found in the west of Ireland,in particular
the idea that the faeries carried off children from the human world.
Yeats’s treatment of Irish materials
,specially the old legends and sagas are also seen in his work The Rose.In this
collection specially two poems - Fergus and the Druid’, Cuchulain’s Fight with
the Sea’ are full of Irish elements.The former deals with the Ulster’s
legendary king Fergus,who married Ness.The poem is a conversation between the
Druid and Fergus,who was persuaded by his wife Ness to allow Ness’s son (by
previous marriage) MacNessa to rule the country for a year.But when the king
gave the power,he was trickily driven out of the country at the end of the
year.Fergus passed his days hunting,fighting,and feasting.Thus,the poem is
based on an Irish saga.
The poem ’Cuchulain’s Fight with the
Sea’ deals with the Irish Achilles or the Hercules Cuchulain.The poem is about
the death of Cuchulain,the greatest Irish mythological hero,who appears many
times throughout Yeats' work.
The legend of Cuchulain goes back
the the pre-Christain time.He appears in in the Ulster Cycle of
stories.Cuchulain,the superhuman warrior figure had a divine from the
supernatural father figures such as Conall Cernach.As a youth, Cuchulain
defeats one hundred and fifty of King Conchobar's troops on his way to the
royal court. Suffice to say that Cuchulain is the hero most identified with
Ireland and represents both positive and negative aspects of the Irish people
and their struggle.
In the poem, " To Ireland in
the Coming Times" Yeats again draws upon Irish folklore and mythic symbols
and sets them against a backdrop of national identity. When the poet writes,
" When Time began to rant and rage / The measure of her flying feet / Made
Ireland's heart begin to beat; " He is speaking of the affects of the
industrial revolution," When Time began to rant and rage." How the
pre-industrial rhythm of life had been interrupted by the hourly wage in the
cities, as opposed to the pastoral life of the country that was governed by the
changing of the seasons, rather than the movement of the hands of a clock. This
accelerated pace of life and of time," The measure of her flying
feet," was reviled by Yeats and he wrote of his distaste of current
English life, referring to passions that a man might yet find in Ireland,
"love of the Unseen Life and love of country."
In the collection The Rose,Yeats
emphasizes Irish imagery; the rose, the faeries and the Druid that are all
closely associated with Ireland and are used here to disparage the rigid and
structured English world view.
Another poem that illustrates how
Yeats melds folklore and nationalism is "The Song of Wandering
Aengus." In the poem, Yeats refers to Aengus, the Irish god of love. He
was said to be a young, handsome god that had four birds flying about his head.
These birds symbolized kisses and inspired love in all who heard them sing.The
poem deals with the shape-changing of the fairies and tells a story in which a
fish is transformed into a beautiful woman whom Aengus spends the rest of his
life trying to find. In the poem, Yeats strays from the actual myth of Aengus.
Yeats wrote, "Though I am old with wandering/ Through hollow lands and
hilly lands." In the actual myth, Aengus was still young when he found his
love. "The Song of Wandering Aengus" was about longing and searching,
rather than about a song of found love.
Thus,Yeats took inspiration from the
myths and legends of ancient Ireland in order to create a conspicuously Irish literature.
Yeats’s later poems
Yeats believed the idea that poetry
should be changed to adjust the changes around us.So,his nationalism is not
only seen in the treatment of the Irish myths and legends.He also wrote about
the contemporary issues that concered his Ireland.His early interest in myths
and legends was relaced by contemporay politics,legal questions,rebellion,and
other issues.This change we find in his ’The Green Hemlet and Other Poems’.Two
poems of the collection clearly reflect his new nationalism.These are In Upon a
house Shaken by the Land Agitation and At Galway Races.
In Upon a house Shaken by the Land
Agitation Yeats makes an explicit and timely comment upon a political issue.The
title of the poem refers to Land Reform ,an important movement in 19th century
Irish legislation to bring agriculture and the peasantry out of the incredibly
impoverished past by changing the relation between landlords and tenant.The
1903 Wyndham Land Act provided for bonuses to landlords who sold property to tenants
on easy terms. Aaccording to the legislation the tenants were able to buy thier
farms.Here the house stands for aristocracy,tradition,the Anglo-Irish
inheritance,and social stability.Yeats believed in aristocracy.Like Nietzsche
he also believed that the rare thing is for the rare people,great things for
the great people.This view is reflected in the poem.
Another later poem, "At Galway
Races," illustrates how Yeats work was evolving, but the theme of Ireland
was still the most lasting message in his works.
"Sing on: somewhere at some new
moon,
We'll learn that sleeping is not
death,
Hearing the whole earth change its
tune
Its flesh being wild, and it again
Crying aloud as the racecourse is,
And we find hearteners among men
That ride upon horses"
Yeats is not only celebrating horse
racing, which is the national sport of Ireland, it is celebrating the endurance
of Ireland during its troubles with Great Britain, and celebrating the strong
backbone of the Irish, who are men "that ride upon horses." Yeats
work literally breathes Ireland in every line, and there is no doubt that Yeats
loved this unique land, and wanted to share that love with people the world
over."
In another poem namely ’Easter 1916’
Yeats also expresses his nationalism.The poem commemorates the Easter Rising of
24 April 1916 when the memebers of the Irish Republican Brotherhood under the
leadership of Patricia Pearse rose against British rule of Ireland.The rising
was subdued and the ring leaders were put to death.The poem carefully expresses
an ambiguous attitude of quallified support for the rebels.Like the rebels
Yeats was also willing to free Ireland from all kinds of English dominance but
he hated the violence.He indirectly accused the rebels for overtuning the works
of years and felt very despondent about the future.
His such poems as The Wild Swans a t
Coole’,Coole Park,and Coole Park and Ballylee also bear his nationalism.Yeats
uses swan as a symbol of tranquility,beauty,and pride-the typical Irish
characteristics in his poetry.These poems are also in the descriptions of the
Irish landscapes.
His another remarkable poem ’Leda
and the Swan’ can also be interpreted as literary attack against England’s
harsh treatment of Irland.The sonnet composed in 1923 refers to the myth of the
rape of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan.The poem represents the dominance of
Swan over Leda.Yeats’s uses of such imageries as ’ a sudden blow’,’the
staggering girl’,’caught in the bill’ clearly picture the violence used by
Zeus.Here the relation between Leda and Swan is the relation of that of the
oppressed and the oppressed,the colonized and the colonizer.As it is clear the
colonizer is England and the colonized is Ireland.The former excercised
violence against the later.The interpretaion seems to be convincing if we
consider the time of its composition.
Yeats had a high sense of
nationalism.His defth of nationalism becomes more evident if we compare his
work with the works of T.S Eliot.Eliot took Europe and its war-fragmented
culture as its Waste Land.So,the English poets became disillusioned with their
country after the first world war.But Yeats,who spent two thirds of his life
out of Ireland still retained Ireland as his imaginative homeland.
Yeats’s sense of nationalism is also
seen from the fact that he often made a contrast between peaceful Ireland and
industrial England.He also compared the Irish mythology culture with the
cultures of classical Greece and Byzantium.
Yeats is considered one of the
finest poets in the English language. He was devoted to the cause of Irish
nationalism and played a significant part in the Celtic Revival Movement,
promoting the literary heritage of Ireland through his use of material from
ancient Irish sagas.