Yeats why should i blame

He continues in line 11 with an allusion to Fate and Necessity, two ideas most certainly known by ancient Greeks, when describing her actions as being necessitated by her character those attributes mentioned through lines 6 and 10 : what could she have done, being what she is Then comes- once again with Yeats- an apocalyptic consideration, a consideration which seems to me to be a synthesis of the empirical and ethereal tones of the poem as a whole: Was there another Troy for her to burn.

What I love about this poem is that it expresses so much- more than I dare attempt to touch on here- in just a few lines.

Poets that do this and do it well leave me staggering in awe. To know a poem in its context, even if vaguely, makes it so much more interesting and beautiful.

Context is a pretty thing. Posted by John W. Newer Post Older Post Home. Subscribe to: Post Comments Atom. The Poets. He might still be furious with the woman and her troublemaking, or maybe he has resigned himself sadly to the way things are.

Despite the speaker's accusations, Maud Gonne emerges from the poem as a sympathetic, even persecuted, figure. The poem amounts to a total repudiation of Gonne's political tactics, even as it upholds the speaker's love for her. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By William Butler Yeats. She will not be what people tell her she should be. Her little figure at the gate The angels must have spied, Since I could never find her Upon the mortal side.

The things that built the tunnel could not have been human. She had no right to expect men here. She was a little stunned by finding open sky so far underground, though she was intelligent enough to realize that however she had come, she was not underground now. No cavity in the earth could contain this starry sky. Moore American author - Black God's Kiss ; p. I could have had her once. I wonder if she thinks I could have saved her? Examination of 'being' and 'why. The lecture examines reasons why some may dislike the poem.

The opening stanza of Easter is read out as a contrast to No Second Troy. The poem is read through for a final time. The people of Dublin are not ready… almost to receive her. Now, to understand No Second Troy, there are four areas you need to be aware of that are external to the poem.

The first of these is Troy itself, what it is. The second is the Irish political situation around the time that the poem was written, which was The third is Yeats' relationship with a woman called Maud Gonne. Now, the way I'll teach this to you is, I'll read the poem through first, I'll then explain all four of these areas.

I'll then look at the poem's form, the way Yeats puts across what he wants to say in the poem. So this is the first read-through of Yeats' No Second Troy. Why should I blame her that she filled my days With misery, or that she would of late 2 Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, Or hurled the little streets upon the great, Had they but courage equal to desire?

What could have made her peaceful with a mind That nobleness made simple as a fire, With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind That is not natural in an age like this, Being high and solitary and most stern?

Why, what could she have done, being as she is? Was there another Troy for her to burn? So that's the poem. Let's look at those four areas you need to understand to appreciate this poem. The first, Troy. Now, Troy is an area in ancient Greece where a famous war was fought.

Many have heard of it due to the wooden horse of Troy story. The war starts because of a woman called Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful woman of her age, who is married to Menelaus, the brother of the Greek King Agamemnon.

There are different versions of this story; some would say that Paris abducts and rapes her and takes her away. Some say that because Paris is much younger than the older Menelaus, Helen is more than willing to go to Troy with the younger, more attractive man.

The point is, Helen goes to Troy, and Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus launch a fleet of a thousand ships to come and bring her back. A war is fought over this woman. The most beautiful woman of her age, a war is fought over her. She is the type of woman who can inspire an army, and Yeats is very interested in this sort of thing.

So that's 3 Troy. The second thing we need to know is the Irish political situation at the time the poem was written, which was In , Ireland, the island of Ireland, is a part of Britain in the same way that Wales and Scotland are today. I'll try to relate to you in the most uncontroversial way that I can, but it seems fair to say that the people of Ireland minded more being ruled from Westminster, being ruled from London, than the people of Scotland might, or the people of Wales might, because Ireland itself is an independent land mass in a way that Scotland and Wales are not.

So because Ireland is an independent island, there is a lot of call for Irish independence; for Ireland to have its own parliament. This independence happens in , after a revolution takes place in Ireland, out of Dublin. The relevance of this is that at the time when this poem is written, the revolution which is going to oust the British from Ireland has not yet taken place.

It doesn't take place until four years after this poem is written. The third thing you need to know is Yeats' relationship with a woman called Maud Gonne. And this is a great story.

Maud Gonne is the love of Yeats' life. He meets her when he is in his early twenties. And he is a famous Irish poet, he's just written The Wanderings of Oison, and Maud Gonne comes into his life, and he says 'The troubling of my life started'. He sees her and in her, he sees the woman that he wants to be his companion through his life. She is everything he wants in a woman. She is sophisticated, she is passionate, she is an Irish nationalist, she's the type of woman who is going to inspire him to greater things.

She is a goddess. There's nothing unusual in this. A lot of poets love the idea of a muse, and they select a woman to be their muse, or women to be their muse, and from this they get the work that they're going to present to the public. They get the poems from the woman they have selected as their muse. Maud Gonne was slightly different in this. She rejected Yeats time and time again. He was to propose to her 5 or 6 times over a period of years and each time, she rejected him.

The last time that Yeats proposes to her, she rejects him, and Yeats 4 proposes to her daughter, Iseult Gonne, who also rejects him.

When Yeats first meets Maud, he sees her as the virginal, beautiful, goddess-type woman. And he is distraught to the point of a nervous breakdown some ten years later to find that she is the mistress of a very rightwing French politician and has had a daughter by him, Iseult. Some time later, Maud Gonne marries a man who at the time was an Irish military hero, a man called John MacBride, who Yeats was to call a 'Drunken, vein, glorious, lout'.

Yeats hated him. Maud Gonne was to say of her relationship with Yeats, she has this wonderful line whereby she says that, 'The world will thank me, Willy, for continually rejecting you, because Through having this woman continually break his heart, Yeats gives us poems like Words, which is a wonderful one on his belief that he only became the poet that he became in order to express himself to her, and if she wasn't there, he wouldn't have been able to become William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet.

He might have had a better life, he considers, but he wouldn't have been the person he became. He gave the world, or Yeats' relationship with Maud Gonne gives the world, poems like He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven, which is a short one, so I'll recite that for you now. He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven goes: Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, 5 Meaning, if I had a cloth which had all the most beautiful colours in the heavens on it.

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. And what a beautiful last line that is. I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. Yeats must have been the only man in history to have said that to a woman and not profited by it.

So there's Yeats' relationship to Maud Gonne, the woman to whom this poem is addressed. The woman who he has loved all his life, who has continually broken his heart. And incidentally, we can question the poet's sincerity in complaining about the woman he has selected to break his heart actually breaking his heart all we like.

But it is undeniable that Maud Gonne put Yeats through a lot of misery.