Reading Week 13: Yeats, Part A


Modern poetry:

- Poetry became big in the 19th century thanks to the popularity of the Romantic movement, which encouraged people to become more expressive, however along with it came many writing cliches.
- Modernists rebelled against these cliches, seeking precision and clarity over self expression
- Some modernists saw symbolism as another way of expressing your feelings and not looking at things objectively and clearly, but some used symbolism to challenge the reader's thinking and felt it enriched their writing
- Similar logic applied to the use of mythology in poetry
- Modernists usually wrote longer poems and epics, and many were politically minded

William Butler Yeats:

- 1865 to 1939
- Became a major poetic voice for Ireland
- Eldest of four in a middle class Protestant family
- Was homeschooled by his father who taught him to be skeptical of science and that art was superior
- Yeats went to art school and intended on becoming a painter like his father and brother
- Was influenced in school towards poetry
- Combined his love of the medieval with his love of Irish legends in his poems
- Many critics rejected modernism because they saw it as elitist and contrary to the idea of poetry

Easter 1916:

- About the Easter Rising of 1916 where Irish nationalists rose up to overthrow British rule and make Ireland independent. It wasn't successful and the leaders were executed. 
- Repeats the phrase "A terrible beauty is born" which means that in the aftermath of the rebellion there in death and devastation but the change he sees around him is beautiful yet also terrible
- Memorialized those who fought and died for the cause of an independent Ireland

Other poems:

- Incorporated a lot of references to religion
- Repeats phrases a lot and uses parallelism
- Comments on real world events or historical ones

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