Conflicting Themes in The Poetry of W. B. Yeats

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In analysing the poetry of W.B. Yeats, I have come to understand the multiple conflicting themes and positions he presents in his poetry. However, my understanding has been influenced most by Yeats’s exploration of key conflicts in ageing along with political anarchy. These are conveyed respectively in the poems “Wild Swans at Coole” (1916) and “Leda and the Swan” (1923), using the central symbol of the swan. In “Wild Swans at Coole”, Yeats conveys the conflict within his heart; where he is an ageing, old man opposed to the young, revitalised swans. He laments the loss of his playful energy which he sees in the abundance of love and vitality in the swans. In “Leda and the Swan”, Yeats conveys the political dichotomy of the Irish nationalistic struggle against the opposing British suppression; exemplified by the swan’s advances towards the vulnerable Leda.

Yeats presents the key conflict of ageing through exploring his own life in decline compared to the spiritual transcendence of the swans in “Wild Swans at Coole”. Yeats wrote this poem in October 1916 after his latest rejection by Maud Gonne, following the death of her husband, John MacBride, in the Easter Rebellion. Yeats therefore reflects on the inertia of his own life, while regathering himself at Lady Gregory’s Coole Park estate. While revolving around the idea that sexual fulfilment with Maud has been lost. Yeats retains the last of his romantic preoccupations in perceiving a spiritual element through the natural world, where nature is reflective of youth and beauty. The main way this is conveyed is through the swans, symbolising youth, vitality and freedom, the conflicting position to Yeats’s personal state.

Yeats conveys this through a reflective, sorrowful tone, as h...

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...he spiritual element of life, discovered through the natural world with “Wild Swans at Coole”, and history with “Leda and the Swan”.

Works Cited

1. Bogan, L., 1938, “William Butler Yeats”, The Atlantic Monthly, May 1938, accessed 8 June 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1938/05/william-butler-yeats/4672/

2. Holstad, S., n.d., "Yeats's 'Leda and the Swan’: Psycho-Sexual Therapy in Action", California State University, accessed 8 June 2012, http://www-scf.usc.edu/~erdemoz/Write/leda.html

3. “Modernist Poetry 2: W. B. Yeats”, lecture by Dr. Aaron Kelly, 20th April 2004, from the green booklet “Module B: The Critical Study of Texts: William Butler Yeats”.

4. Morrison, A., 1998, “Theories of Post-Coloniality: Edward W. Said and W.B. Yeats", The Imperial Archive Project, accessed 9 June 2012, http://www.qub.ac.uk/imperial/ireland/saidyeat.htm

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